‘Not out of the woods yet’: Locals brace for more rain amid flood disaster

Soaked residents have been told to brace for more torrential rain and evacuations as an extreme flood disaster unfolds across the NSW Mid North Coast and the Hunter, after a day when trapped locals were winched from roofs by helicopters and ferried to safety and more than 48,000 left stranded.

Intense rain on Tuesday night unleashed a “one-in-500-year” flood disaster that shut more than 100 schools, inundated or isolated thousands of homes and forced more than 40 rescue teams to carry out at least 400 flood rescues in the region by Wednesday afternoon.

Premier Chris Minns warned the region was “not out of the woods yet”, with another 200mm of rainfall forecast over the next 48 hours, and the State Emergency Service again urged people to get out of flood-prone areas.

The Bureau of Meteorology’s Dean Narramore warned that from Forster to Grafton, severe bursts of rainfall on Wednesday night into Thursday could lead to “localised, dangerous and deadly” flooding.

Emergency warnings remained in place from Newcastle to Yamba, with residents in parts of Port Macquarie, Spencerville, Smithtown and Kempsey’s CBD urged to evacuate as floodwaters surged downstream.

Drone vision over Taree on Wednesday.Credit: Harrison Reed / Seascape Media

Severe rainfall is forecast to continue over the next two days as the weather system moves north towards Port Macquarie and Coffs Harbour, areas the SES was closely monitoring by Wednesday afternoon, with a focus on Kempsey.

“We are likely to see evacuations continue in these areas, with rainfall continuing to impact saturated catchments,” SES assistant commissioner Dean Storey said.

“We are asking people in these high-risk areas not to wait until it’s too late – know what you will do if you do need to leave, and immediately follow the advice of emergency services.”

Authorities have urged people not to enter floodwaters.

On Wednesday morning the Manning River at Taree flooded at a level never before seen, surpassing the six-metre flood recorded in 1929 by at least another 40 centimetres. Taree has experienced one-third of its annual average rainfall in two days, while the nearby town of Wingham has broken its daily record for rain in May.

Elias, 12, and his goldfish were rescued from floodwaters in Taree.Credit: Kate Geraghty

Dramatic footage emerged of rescuers swinging down from helicopters onto the roofs of Taree residents trapped overnight to winch them to safety, while NSW Fire & Rescue dinghies whisked stranded families, dogs and, in one case, a 12-year-old boy and his pet goldfish across flooded roads.

Among those plucked from danger was Taree resident Holly Pillotto, who was rescued after being forced to hunker down on her roof overnight.

“When the evacuation warning went out it was too late anyway, there was water already over the road, so we weren’t able to leave anyway, so we kind of just buckled down,” Pillotto told Nine News.

“Nobody in the area has seen it this high before, everything downstairs was floating.”

Dramatic vision of locals being rescued by helicopter.Credit:

Local Ken Richardson said the water rose “all of a sudden” at his home north-east of Taree. His son and grandparents became snared with water rapidly rising to their waists as they scrambled to atract the attention of helicopters. Rescue came in the form of a community-operated rescue barge, which dropped the stranded family to safety at a nearby arts hall.

Robyn Doust and her dog, Gypsy, were trapped in her Glenthorne home for 19 hours until they were rescued by boat on Wednesday afternoon.

“The water came in really, really quickly, and it just started to flow into the house that quickly – I didn’t have a chance,” Doust said. “I went upstairs with my dog, and we stayed there last night and a little today, until we were able to get rescued.”

Robyn and Gypsy were all smiles as they returned to dry land.Credit: Kate Geraghty

Residents were caught off guard as rivers rose to unprecedented levels and houses were swallowed by floodwater for the first time, SES chief superintendent Dallas Byrnes said.

“What we are seeing is [that] some locations on the eastern seaboard had not seen this sort of flooding before,” Byrnes told the ABC.

“Until you have seen it and witnessed it, you do not know how quickly those waters can rise and how dangerous it is.”

Chief executive of Natural Hazards Research Australia Andrew Gissing described the flood at Taree as a “one-in-500-year event”.

“We know from research that people tend to benchmark events back to what they’ve experienced before. But this is an extreme event, much bigger than anything that happened in the 70s or the one in 2021,” he said, adding the flood four years ago hit 4.5 metres at Taree.

Gissing said no single event could be ascribed to climate change, but a warmer atmosphere holds more water, leading to a greater likelihood of intense flood-causing downpours. “We’ve had back-to-back flood events since the 2019-20 fires,” he said.

“These are compounding events for communities still in recovery; it’s what we expect with people being in a constant state of disaster recovery under climate change.”

Taree’s Manning River Hotel offered all SES workers free meals and didn’t charge many customers who had been stranded. Licensee Jesse Overvliet said the hotel was lucky to escape the heavy flooding.

“We’re just open to try and give people a place to stay warm and dry and have some food and coffee,” Overvliet said.

“As much as possible, everyone’s sort of banding together. We’re trying to do our part … it’s going to take a long time for the community to bounce back.”

The federal and NSW governments have activated disaster support funding for 16 flood-struck local government areas.

The funding includes assistance for immediate necessities such as accommodation and essential items, as well as grants for low-income, uninsured residents who have lost essential household items or need structural repairs to their homes.

The support also extends to local councils to cover clean-up costs and restoration of public assets.

“We’re throwing every single thing we’ve got at this event,” Emergency Services Minister Jihad Dib said. “Rain has been falling quite heavily and hard, and it hasn’t been moving away.”

Livestock is herded away from the surf at Wallabi Beach.Credit: Facebook

Incredible footage captured during the disaster showed cattle appearing on Wallabi Beach near Old Bar, with locals herding the animals away from the dangerous surf conditions and back towards land.

The livestock are believed to belong to neighbouring farms, many of which have lost power and mobile service in the floods.

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