The Manning River has reached record highs as the flooding crisis in the area escalates. The raging water now appears to be less than a metre from the road, according this picture on social media.
Flooding at unprecedented levels has inundated towns and left residents stranded in the Mid North Coast and Hunter region of New South Wales, with parts of Taree, Wingham and Glenthorne of most concern.
NSW State Emergency Services personnel have rescued hundreds of people from floodwaters and rooftops, while thousands have lost power or been isolated by cut-off roads.
Authorities have issued 13 emergency-level alerts, with the Manning River peaking at 6.4 metres at Taree, surpassing the 1929 record flood level.
A massive rescue operation is underway amid record flooding on the New South Wales Mid North Coast.
The Manning River is flooding at a level never seen before at Taree, surpassing the 1929 record of six metres early this morning, and is still rising.
SES Chief Superintendent Dallas Byrnes said it was “an incredibly dynamic and escalating situation”.
He said emergency service crews had conducted more than 150 flood rescues since midnight and that more calls for help were still coming through.
Chief Superintendent Byrnes said areas around Taree, Wingham and Coffs Harbour were the main priority at this stage.
The SES is co-ordinating a massive rescue operation around Taree. (ABC News: Nakita Jager)
“We’ve got a lot of people getting rescued from rooftops and from upper levels of houses,” he said.
“Unfortunately some of those people were unable to be rescued last night due to the weather conditions … we’re prioritising those now and we’ve got aviation assets in place to support that.
“But conditions are quite treacherous and it may be that those aviation assets are unable to fly throughout the day.”
Craig Emerton, a fifth-generation dairy farmer at Croki, north of Taree, described the situation as “dire”.
“Totally unprecedented — nobody has seen anything like this here,” he said.
“We’ve got cattle on the highest part of the farm standing up to their bellies in water, nowhere to go.
“Our house is inundated, it’s almost up to seat-level on our dining chairs.
“We’re just trying to stay dry, or warm.”
Jason Harvey from the Taree unit of the NSW Volunteer Rescue Association told ABC NewsRadio he helped rescue a family with a six-week-old baby as floodwater reached the second storey of the building they were in.
“They thought they could ride it out, and obviously floodwaters did rise quite significantly from the Manning River,” he said.
“They did have a verandah on the second storey and the water was significantly up, so we were able to get them straight over the railing and into the boat.”
During the 24 hours to Wednesday morning, the NSW State Emergency Service (SES) responded to 887 incidents, including 118 flood rescues.
In one of the more significant incidents overnight, 24 people were rescued from the flooded Pacific Highway at Ghini Ghini.
NSW SES State Duty Commander Colin Malone said in a statement earlier today that emergency service crews were responding to rescue requests as quickly as possible.
“This is a dynamic situation, but the NSW SES and our emergency service partners are deploying every available asset to assist with these rescues,” he said.
Assistant Commissioner Malone said emergency workers had not been able to access some locations and urged anyone stranded to move to higher ground.
