Floods far from over as another body found

The body of a second man has been recovered from NSW floodwaters, while farmers in Forbes watch hundreds of thousands of litres of milk ‘go straight down the drain’.

looding in the town of Forbes, where floodwaters have peaked just below the record 1952 levels. Picture: Farmpix Photography

Police have found a second body after two Sydney men were swept away in wild floodwaters in the Southern Tablelands last week, as communities across inland NSW remain inundated in water.

Authorities confirmed they had located the body of Bob Chahine near Prestons Creek, about 50km from Boorowa, on Sunday. Mr Chahine and Ghosn Ghosn, whose body was located on Thursday, were in the tray of a ute that was washed away as they crossed a flooded creek.

Bob Chahine and Ghosn Ghosn with their wives Remonda (left) and Sarah (right).

In Forbes, floodwaters could remain high for days, as some residents are cut off from the hospital, millions of dollars in cereal crop is wiped out, and hundreds of thousands of litres of cow milk goes down the drain.

Water reached shoulder-height at some low-lying businesses in the Forbes CBD on Saturday evening when the Lachlan River peaked at 10.64m, just below record 1952 levels.

The town has been cut in two, with the hospital on one side, and boats and Rural Fire Service vehicles bridging the gap.

Residents will now endure an agonising wait as the river slowly recedes.

“We believe 500 homes would have some form of impact,” Forbes Shire Mayor Phyllis Miller said.

“We don’t know the damage yet … There’s stock losses, crop losses. Lot of people isolated and have been for some time. We’ve been in flood for four months in some parts of (the) shire.”

“Exhausted, cold and cranky” eastern brown snakes also tried to escape the floodwaters as Forbes snake catcher Paul Newcombe received about a dozen calls over the past day.

Flooding in the city of Forbes. Picture: Farmpix Photography

The SES is now preparing the downstream community of Condobolin for the worst when it potentially peaks in about five to seven days. Narrandera and Darlington Point, downstream on the Murrumbidgee, could also peak on Tuesday at over 8m.

“If properties were affected by flooding (in 1952 or 2016) then they need to start preparing for a similar height,” NSW SES spokesman Greg Nash said.

The Lachlan River will remain at major flood levels on Monday, before dropping to moderate throughout the week, according to the Bureau of Meteorology.

Elle Schofield and her husband Rick are watching milk literally “go straight down the drain” because tankers can’t get on to their flooded dairy farm, 15km from Forbes, to collect it.

Elle Schofield and her daughter on the farm. Picture: Supplied

“Who knows how long it will be before we see a tanker again,” Ms Schofield said.

“The cows get milked … and the hose that normally attaches to the vat is just on the ground. The cows are walking in it.”

They have 300 milking cows and about 400 young stock. “We’ve dumped well over 100,000 litres of milk already,” she said. “And who knows how much more.”

The parents of two young girls also grow their own silage and hay but it’s all been wiped out in the floods.

“That’s hundreds of thousands of dollars gone and now we will have to find that money, and find a way to go and buy it. But there’s a shortage of it everywhere.”

Farmer Nick Rebellato, who lives on about 100ha with his wife and two young children about 4km outside of town, has lost all his cereal crop and half his lucerne crop, which amounts to about $100,000.

Nick Rebellato‘s crops underwater at his Forbes farm. Picture: Supplied

He makes money selling small bales of hay for the horse market but said they now “have no hay to sell”.

Mr Rebellato, 34, has lived in Forbes all his life, and said he’d never seen so much water.

“We count it as a loss, go again next sowing season,” he said. “And wait and see what the rest of the year brings. I don’t think we’re not out of the woods yet.”

The south Murrumbidgee peaked at Wagga Wagga on Friday afternoon, and dropped below major levels on Sunday morning. Those in the north have been told by the SES they can return home.