Water rises in Forbes as flood threatens record levels

Forbes resident Maxine Nolan, 24, was staying at a friend’s house after fleeing her flooded home when she suddenly felt compelled to return.

“I had this stressful feeling come across me that one of my cats was calling out to me,” she said.

Nolan and her friend Kiani Hill walked several kilometres along elevated train tracks, the only route she had left to get to her flat, where the water was swirling around hip-level.

“It was so dark, there was a strong current underneath the water and I was stressed out because I couldn’t find my cats,” she said. “We found one on a soccer post and one up a tree.”

Flood waters have been rising in Forbes for several days and reached 10.66 metres on Saturday afternoon, eclipsing all but one of the town’s previous records. The Bureau of Meteorology expected water levels to peak at 10.7 metres on Saturday evening.

A history of major floods in Forbes

• June 1952: Lachlan River peaked at 10.8m at the Forbes Iron Bridge on the Forbes-Cowra road
• October 1955: 10.62m peak that split Forbes into three islands
• August 1990: 10.65m peak that saw about 132 properties with water in their yards or over the floors
• August 1998: 10.35m peak 
• March 2013: 10.55 peak that cut Forbes into three and flooded at least 16 properties

Nolan said Forbes was divided in two by the flood, making it difficult to get around.

“A lot of people are completely stranded because they don’t live right next to the train track,” she said. “As far as you can see, in any direction at my house, it’s like a lake. There’s just so much water and it’s so high.”

More than 100 emergency flood warnings remained in place in NSW on Saturday night. There were 237 calls for assistance and 10 flood rescues in the 24 hours to noon.

This included the rescue of a pregnant woman on Friday afternoon when, shortly before 5pm, NSW SES were called to Jacaranda Street in Forbes, where a woman and her midwife required urgent transportation.

Forbes SES unit rescuer Ryan Jones said the patient’s water had broken and her midwife assessed she needed admission to hospital.

An aerial view of Forbes on Saturday morning.Credit: Nick Moir

“She was isolated by flood water in north Forbes, we had to transport her across the flooded river and waterways to the hospital,” he said. “The water was too deep and dangerous for private vehicles, so the only way for us to access this patient was via [the] use of our high clearance vehicles.”

Jones said it had been a busy day conducting other flood rescues, sandbagging and resupplying essential supplies. “It has been non-stop,” he said.

The SES remained concerned for areas along the Lachlan river – including Forbes and Cowra, the Murrumbidgee, Namoi, Murray and Barwon rivers.

SES Assistant Commissioner Nicole Hogan cautioned floods are very unsafe.

“It might be tempting to enter flooded water, but it can often be quite polluted,” she said. “It can contain all sorts of contaminants such as fecal matter, deceased animals, [and] hazardous chemicals which can pose all sorts of risks to your health.”

NSW Emergency Services Minister Steph Cooke urged the community to remain on high alert, with river levels to remain high over the coming days.

NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet said 50 Australian Defence Force personnel would be deployed in Forbes and about 200 troops would be made available for flooded communities across the state.

Major rivers across western and southern NSW were flooding, including the Murrumbidgee at Wagga Wagga, the Murray at Moama, and the Lachlan. Lightning Ridge, Collarenebri and Walgett in the state’s north-west were all isolated by flood waters.

Water levels at Wagga Wagga, the largest inland town in NSW, peaked at 9.72 metres on Friday, the highest in more than a decade.

More than 2660 buildings have been assessed with 1147 damaged.

Nolan’s three cats have joined two great danes at her friend’s house, a reunion she’s glad to have facilitated.

“The cats couldn’t just play parkour all day at the flat, and no matter how far they swam in any direction, they would have drowned,” she said.

“I think my cats are a bit more relaxed now.”

With AAP