Gundagai in southern New South Wales is bracing for major flooding, with local SES crews expecting up to 90,000 megalitres to start being released from Burrinjuck Dam this afternoon.
Key points:
- SES crews responded to more than 70 calls for assistance and carried out 10 rescues across inland NSW overnight
- The service is urging people not to make the “poor decision” to drive through floodwater
- Farmers on the Murrumbidgee River are preparing for imminent flooding in the Gundagai area
The dam began spilling this morning as more than 100,000ML of water flowed in from tributaries, including the Yass and Queanbeyan rivers, following rain totals of more than 100 millimetres in the Burrinjuck catchment.
Farmers along the Murrumbidgee River at Gundagai are moving their stock to higher ground in preparation, with the possibility of the river reaching 8.5 meters this evening and 9m by Saturday morning.
The SES is also deploying extra crews to Temora, which recorded 60mm of rain overnight.
Creeks north of the town are rising.
“We had a band of rain that passed through Idaho and out past Cootamundra that brought, give or take, 20 to 30mm yesterday evening,” incident controller Barry Griffiths said.
“That’s stabilized overnight, but it produced 71 calls for assistance.”
Mr Griffiths said four rescues had been carried out.
“We have some low-lying water around the Temora area triggering some rescues for us — we had two overnight and two happening at the moment,” he said.
“It looks like people were driving and got cut off on the road.”
Mr Griffith said warnings were in place for drivers to avoid flooded roads.
“If the road that you drive on normally does get flooding, assume that it is and drive the long way around,” he said.
The BOM is warning that moderate flooding is also possible at Wagga Wagga tomorrow afternoon.
Woman found safe in Mudgee
Further north, a woman has been found safe after her vehicle was swept into flood waters in the New South Wales Central West overnight, as other parts of the state brace for major flooding.
At 6.30pm yesterday emergency services were called to Macdonalds Creek at Erudgere, about 15 kilometers north-west of Mudgee, following reports that a vehicle had been swept into a causeway by flash floodwater.
A search and rescue operation led to the discovery of a vehicle submerged in the waterway.
Police were later notified a 59-year-old woman sought assistance at a nearby property in Piambong.
She has been taken to Mudgee Hospital for assessment.
The rescue was one of seven local SES crews responded to across the region.
Others occurred at Wellington, Gulgong, Ballimore, Coonabarabran and Coolah.
“Unfortunately, for the most part they were people who made the pretty poor decision to drive through flooded causeways and they’ve been stranded as a result,” SES spokesperson David Rankin said.
“We have seen falls of between 50 and 60mm right across areas of the Central West,” he said.
“That’s resulted in a number of rivers around here in some degree of flood over last night and into this morning.”
Mr Rankin said SES crews received more than 45 calls for assistance, many of which were related to strong winds.
Crew members spent the night removing branches and trees from roofs and tarping them.
“It’s been a really busy night, thankfully the worst of the rain in the Central West has passed,” Mr Rankin said.
“But we’ve still got flooding on the Castlereagh, Bell, upper and lower Macquarie rivers, the Bogan, the Darling, the Belubula.”
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