Hay mayor Carol Oataway.
She said the expansive Hay Plains – known as theflattest place in the Southern Hemisphere – was usually dry and filled with grass and kangaroos,but it was now a sea of water that was drawing rare birdlife to the area.
“You look out there and think you’re looking at the ocean,but that’s our Murrumbidgee River,spreading out across the Hay Plains.”
On the 64th day of the state’s flood crisis,emergency services are stretched to the limit dealing with one of the biggest operations in the state’s history.
More than 160 emergency personnel,including 12 volunteers from New Zealand,have been deployed to help in the flood-ravaged Central West and more are expected from Singapore and the United States.
In Forbes,where the NSW State Emergency Service rescued 14 people overnight from a local hotel,residents are nervously watching the Lachlan River,which is now expected to peak on Thursday.
The river has been steady at 10.67 metres since 1.30am on Wednesday,but the Bureau of Meteorology says it is possible it could reach the record 10.8 metres set in 1952,which would result in the inundation of about 500 homes.
The usually dry Hay Plains have been turned into a sea of water.
Some residents have also been told to evacuate in towns including Gunnedah,Condobolin,Canowindra,Cowra,and Albury,as well as some nearby villages.
In Eugowra,the search continues for a person missing after devastating roof-high flash flooding early on Monday. Ljubisa “Les” Vugec,85,was last seen at his Eugowra home on Monday morning.
State Emergency Service chaplain Steve Hall said Eugowra has been decimated in the disaster.
“Everything they hold dear has been swept away in a wall of water,” he said.
Locals fill sandbags in Hay on Tuesday morning,in an effort to keep the rising Murrumbidgee River out of their town.Credit:Hay SES
The SES has responded to 329 calls for help and performed 17 flood rescues in the 24 hours to 5am on Wednesday.
Among those rescued by helicopter were an elderly couple,their daughter and two small dogs,when their Forbes home was threatened by rising waters about 10pm.
Months of rain,and especially heavy falls at the weekend,triggered the latest flood crisis in the Central West,forcing Wyangala Dam to spill into the swollen Lachlan River at a rate of 230,000 megalitres a day.
The torrential rain doubled the height of Mandagery Creek at Eugowra,east of Forbes,where Kelly Chambers was celebrating her twin daughters’ 23rd birthday on Sunday night,in the house the family bought less than a year ago.
Houses have been washed off their foundations in Eugowra.Credit:Rhett Wyman
Hours later,they climbed out a window and waded through waist-deep water to escape a torrent of water that tore through their village.
“It’s devastating. Anything that is a memory is gone,” Ms Chambers said.
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Eugowra residents have described two sudden and intense surges of water flowing through the town,washing away houses,knocking over structures and leaving destruction like a “war zone”.
Across NSW,there are 120 flood warnings in place.
with AAP
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