Woman’s body found in Eugowra flood waters after ‘wall of water’ decimates NSW town
A woman’s body has been found in flood waters in the New South Wales town of Eugowra, where locals say they are still in shock after an inland “tsunami” devastated the area.
Police are yet to formally identify the body but say they believe it is 60year-old Dianne Smith, a receptionist at the local doctor’s office who had been missing since Monday’s catastrophic flash flooding.
An elderly man, 85-year-old Ljubisa “Les” Vugec, remained unaccounted for.
Guardian Australia spoke to Smith’s brother, Daniel Townsend, shortly before police announced a body had been found.
“I’m not worried about anything other than her right now,” he said, standing in his ruined news agency. “I can’t even begin to tell you how I’m feeling. I’m just waiting for that knock on the door. I feel terrible.”
Townsend pointed to a line drawn about 1 metre high in his shop.
“That’s how high the water got, it even lifted the cool room,” he said. “Everything is destroyed, we have to start again.
“I’ve literally only got the clothes on my back, I have nothing else. It’s all just material really, while we wait for my sister.”
The sheer force of the flash flooding was still on full display on Wednesday, with cars tossed onto their sides, glass and debris everywhere and locals attempting to take stock of it all.
Curtis and Darren Wykamp were cleaning out their father’s home after he was airlifted off his roof on Monday after being stuck there for five or six hours.
The brothers carried out pieces of destroyed furniture, stepping between mud and rubble.
“It’s just complete destruction – this house pretty much needs to be bulldozed, the water filled up the bottom level,” said Curtis.
“I can only describe it as a war zone.
There’s nothing salvageable here.”
Their dad was due to retire in December but is spending his nights at an emergency shelter in Orange.
Curtis said that while his father was a tough man, he could feel the emotions when they were reunited.
“It’s pretty tough seeing this, it’s heartbreaking to have to go through his home and throw everything out,” he said.
State Emergency Service chaplain Steve Hall said Eugowra had been decimated in the disaster.
“Everything they hold dear has been swept away in a wall of water.”
The Bureau of Meteorology warned that the Lachlan River at Forbes could meet the historic June 1952 peak of 10.8 metres on Thursday morning while major flooding was expected to persist until the end of the week.
People in parts of the north-western town of Gunnedah and the central town of Gooloogong have been told to evacuate. The Namoi River was predicted to peak near 8.2 metres.
In the 24 hours to Wednesday afternoon, the SES responded to 261 calls for help and performed 17 flood rescues.
The NSW emergency services minister, Steph Cooke, said 122 warnings were active statewide and hundreds of homes had been destroyed.
Fourteen people were rescued in Forbes on Tuesday night after the Plainsman Motel was inundated.
The evacuees included an elderly couple and their daughter who were rescued by helicopter.
About 1,000 people and up to 600 homes and businesses are affected by evacuation orders in the town.