‘The raw power of the thing’: Raging Hawkesbury River smashes new Windsor bridge

The swollen river has forced the closure of the new bridge with nervous Windsor locals anxiously waiting for it to hit its peak at 2pm. SEE THE PHOTOS

Dozens of locals watched anxiously this morning as the swollen Hawkesbury River smashed uprooted trees and debris into the new Windsor bridge.

The river, which has swallowed the flood gauges on the banks, is up as high as anyone can remember in more than two decades and it’s still low tide.

The old bridge across to the flats, with the town’s turf farms and stilted homes, would have been underwater by the time the new bridge was closed on Sunday morning.

People watching to see when the water rises over the New Windsor bridge. Picture: Adam Yip

Windsor born and bred Patrick, 26, left his house on the far side of the bridge for fear of getting locked out of town for a week.

“I woke up this morning and checked the level and just drove out of there,” he said.

“I’ve got a lot of work this week I don’t want to miss it.”

Colourful local Graham “Lonnie” Lonard grew up on the river and hasn’t seen it so high in decades.

The raging floodwaters carried trees and debris into the new Windsor bridge. Picture: Adam Yip

A shed swamped by the floodwaters off the Hawkesbury River. Picture: Adam Yip

“The raw power of the thing, it just sucks people in they can’t look away,” he said.

“We always knew the region would cop it.”

He was one of dozens who watched as entire trees, oil drums and dislodged material smacked against the bridge and was pinned or sucked under.

Blue lines of bricks on the bridge foundations Mark previous flood high water marks through the region’s history.

There were just four above the waterline at 10am as the rain intensified.

Golf courses and farms went under water early in the morning.

The closed road leading to the bridge. . Picture: Adam Yip

… and crews on the other side of the bridge. Picture: Adam Yip

Farmers spoke about evacuating horses and machinery before low lying sheds were submersed overnight.

“I know you’re telling people but emphasise if they don’t leave now there may not be help able to get to them later,” a dispatcher told emergency crews co-ordinating over the radio network.

Locals made a run out of the flats across the bridge even as council workers tried to turn them back.

While some locals made a break for it, others were transfixed by the sight of the raging waters slamming into the bridge. Picture: Adam Yip

“I’m trying to get out mate, there’s no signs down that end,” one said from his commodore window.

Evacuation orders by the SES warn major flooding is possible in the area.

The tide in the Hawkesbury will peak at about 2pm.

Farm worker Daren Weber was caught up in the storms while travelling to Sydney for an emergency cancer operation — he’s now trapped as the water rises.

“We came down for an operation at St George, I’m too young to be having this sort of thing done but what the doctors found in me they wish they spotted years ago,” he said.

McKenzies creek flooded over Pitt Town Rd today. Picture: Adam Yip

He and his partner, and dog buddy, are living in their camper bus outside the evacuation centre at Richmond while they wait for a surgery date.

“We started to get these emergency texts late last night, we were a bit alarmed that’s for sure.”

Mr Weber had just done six months rebuilding water lines on bushfire afflicted farms in Kangaroo Valley, hundreds of kilometres from his home on Queensland’s Gold Coast.

Neither his bus or his wife’s little blue car will be able to cross the waters rising around Richmond.

“We are feeling a bit trapped, definitely isolated,” he said.

“There are parts I know our little car won’t get through so we’ll just have a few drinks at the pub and wait.”

“Once I recover we’ll be headed straight home to the sunny skies but the plans are all delayed now.”

Originally published as ‘The raw power of the thing’: Raging Hawkesbury River smashes new Windsor bridge