NSW floods: Mamata Pun Rana gives birth after dramatic SES rescue in Forbes
As Forbes remains on high alert with waters still rising and homes under water, the heavily pregnant woman rescued by the SES on Friday night has given birth to a beautiful baby boy.
NSW
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Out of the destructive Forbes flood has come one ray of sunshine.
Baby Imaan was born happy and healthy on Saturday after mum Mamata Pun Rana and her midwife were cut off by the floods with Mamata in labour and the baby due any time.
SES volunteer Ryan Jones came to the rescue in a truck, ploughing through floodwater to get the pair to Forbes Hospital.
But while the first-time parents Mamata and Chitra celebrate their newborn son, the town remains on high alert with waters still rising and homes under water.
Despite not a drop of water falling from the sky and the sun beaming, the water continued to rise yesterday, claiming homes and businesses.
Late on Saturday residents were told to start boiling their drinking water after the muddy flood started to leak into the town’s water supply.
The town is split in half by water, with a makeshift ferry set up to get people to and from the city centre — but the mayor has warned it is for critical workers and emergencies only.
“Please don’t just catch boats so you can go get a box of beer … I know beer is really good but if you live on the northern side pop over to Parkes if you have to,” Phyllis Miller said.
Jess and Rick Hogben’s Forbes home was flooded just a week after losing their insurance coverage.
“My little girls keep crying because I’ve been crying,” Mrs Hogben said.
“The kids – their bed frames are floating.”
On Friday night the family slept in their timber workshop, Ms Hogben said.
They were informed a few weeks ago they could not renew their home insurance because their home was now deemed to be in a flood-prone area.
“We’ve put the mattresses on top of the loft. We’ve put all of our furniture up, but if it rises any more, we could end up having no furniture left.”
The water was set to peak at 10.7 metres, just below the 1952 record.
About 50 ADF personnel are helping with the sandbagging and rescue effort in Forbes, with 200 available across the state.
While Forbes remains on high alert, in flooded Wagga Wagga evacuated residents could soon return to their homes.
Yesterday in Wagga Wagga and Cowra, impact assessments teams were going house to house checking the damage as the waters receded.
There were 282 requests for assistance and 28 flood rescues across the state in the last 24 hours to 3pm yesterday.
“The Forbes CBD is isolated and like an island,” Chief Superintendent Ken Murphy said.
“NSW SES crews have helped transport emergency services personnel, and more than a thousand residents remain isolated or evacuated.
“Early aerial assessments indicate flooding may have affected hundreds of homes and businesses.
“We expect the water to remain in the area for several days, and when waters recedes, we will get people back to their homes as soon as it is safe to do so and complete damage
assessments.”
SES RESCUES PREGNANT WOMAN
SES members have rescued a pregnant woman who became isolated by floodwater in Forbes just as her own water broke.
Forbes SES volunteer Ryan Jones rescued the woman and her midwife just before 5pm, when it became clear a baby was on the way
“The water was too deep and dangerous for private vehicles, so the only way for us to access this patient was via use of our high-clearance vehicles,” he said.
“She was isolated by floodwater in North Forbes, we had to transport her across the flooded river and waterways to the hospital.”
“It was a really nice and rewarding job to be involved in, to be able to put her mind at ease and make a tangible difference was very special.”
Mr Jones said the water was too deep for an ambulance to cross safely, and included suspected sewerage and toxins.
He said the rescue mirrored one his own father did as an SES volunteer in the 1978 floods.
“They actually named the baby after the two SES members who helped,” he said.
The heartwarming rescue came as Forbes copped its biggest flood in decades, and residents of a rural NSW town were warned sewerage failure was moments away.
In north west NSW Collarenebri locals were warned to immediately evacuate by the State Emergency Service as the sewerage system is set to overflow into the community.
Residents should evacuate by 4pm Saturday before the dangerous water enters homes.
It comes as weeks of heavy rain caused rivers to burst and hundreds of people to flee their homes.
Forbes is creeping closer to its worst flood record that was seen over 70 years ago as major flooding impacts local waterways.
Emergency Warning - EVACUATE before 4pm Saturday, 5 November 2022:
— NSW SES (@NSWSES) November 4, 2022
👉 Walli Village - Collarenebri
You must evacuate before this time. Failure of the sewerage system is imminent.
👉 Evacuation will be provided by boat by the NSW SES.
More information: https://t.co/FZooFazTsUpic.twitter.com/hvpLrQx7Qq
Upstream of the rural town, the flood peak is nearing Mulyandry Creek and is expected to surpass the June 1952 flood level of 10.8m on Friday evening.
This is forecast to pass through Cotton Weir on Saturday morning.
Major flooding is occurring at Nanami, Forbes, Cottons Weir and Jemalong due to the swollen Lachlan River, especially downstream of Wyangala Dam to Jemalong Weir, Eubalong and Booligal Weir.
Forbes Shire Mayor Phyllis Miller told Sky News Australia that the town was “prepared for the very worst” and was “hoping for the very best”.
Across NSW, there are 102 flood warnings in place, including 22 evacuation orders that primarily target low-lying areas in several communities scattered in the state’s Far West, Central West, New England and Riverina regions.
Local primary school teacher Sonia Dukes watched as raging floodwaters came “like a torrent” through her yard.
About 10am on Thursday, the water was lapping at her veranda and started coming through the floors underneath “within minutes”.
She fears that her home will be inundated and sustain further damage once the river peaks.
“The last couple of floods that we’ve had have been in my yard, but not actually through the house,” she told The Telegraph.
“We had a few weeks to prepare and we just moved everything out, so it’s just a shell of a house now. We’ll be ripping out the carpet when it goes down, eventually.”
“The water’s coming through town now (and) it’ll split the town in two so people on the south side won’t (be able to) get through.”
The closure of the local school motivated Ms Duke and a group of others to start sandbagging the premises.
“I’m just around the corner from the school and the floodwaters are starting to come into the schoolyard,’ she said.
“We’ve actually had 11 teachers who couldn’t get into tow this week because they were stuck on the other side of the floodwater.”
People are being urged to evacuated in parts of Forbes, Gumly Gumly, Gunnedah, Wagga Wagga, Wilks Park, Alice Edwards Village in Bourke, Picnic Point in Mathoura East, Moama, Tumut and Cowra.
Meanwhile, homes in Bathurst, Lithgow, Wallerawang and Oberon were left without natural gas supplies on Thursday.
The incident has impacted about 20,000 people and is believed to be linked to flooding on the APA Group pipeline from Lithgow to Young.
Gas supply was soon restored in Bathurst and energy operator Jemena has sent staff out to the affected areas.
The Regional Emergency Operations Centre (REOC), based at Dubbo Police Station, has been reopened to monitor the flooding and ongoing gas outage while co-ordinating a whole-of-government response.
Over in Forbes, Kristy Butler is a co-ordinator at the not-for-profit organisation Boys To The Bush who has been helping the community sandbag properties and local businesses.
“I think the last couple of days have been very anxious,” she told The Telegraph.
“People’s homes are going underwater that have never had water before.
“We’ve all tried to prepare as much as we can, but no-one really knew where it (the water) was going to go.”
With rising floodwaters at the forefront of the community’s mind, Ms Butler said they were all “bracing to see what will happen”.
“The water’s already up in the back of town … the back of Woolworths and the netball courts. They’re all currently going under (and) it’s rising quickly,” she said.
“We’ve had time to prepare a little bit in the last few days.
“It’s times like this that it’s about communities coming together and supporting your mate.”
Over in Wagga Wagga, residents are experiencing their worst flood in 10 years.
The river is slowly falling at Nanami where the river peaked at 13.39m about 8:15pm on Thursday night, however it still poses a major flood risk.
Cowra is seeing some improvement with a significant decline in the river levels and is likely to see minor flooding on Friday evening.
It comes after the tragic discovery on Thursday night when one of two men missing in floodwaters in the NSW Southern Tablelands was found by police divers.
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