NSW floods: friends and family struggle to locate loved ones in Eugowra as waters rise
Family and friends of missing Eugowra residents have been waiting anxiously to hear if their loved ones are safe after flash flooding inundated the town, leaving it with no reception.
The entire town of Eugowra remained cut off on Monday evening and about 200 people were being airlifted from the showground evacuation centre to Orange.
About 140 flood rescues have been carried out in the past 24 hours, including 100 from rooftops.
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“With a population of 700, one in five residents have been rescued in the last few hours, by helicopter or by boat,” the emergency services minister, Steph Cooke, said on Monday.
“This [severe weather] event is now in its 62nd day, and every day it throws up new challenges.”
Eugowra is the location of one of 24 emergency warnings in place across NSW after flash floods hit the region in the past 24 hours. The main areas of severe impact are the towns of Parkes, Forbes, Molong, Eugowra, Cowra, Canowindra, Blayney, Young and Yass.
The region’s mayor Kevin Beatty said the situation in Eugowra was “devastating”.
“The entire town is flood-affected and now cut off. You can only get to it by helicopter or boat and the telecommunications are down.
“The water is still quite deep, it’s subsiding slightly but they had another rise not long ago.”
Beatty said residents were being evacuated from one of the evacuation centres after the showground was surrounded by water.
“They’re saying they’ve evacuated all those in precarious positions. Now they’re just trying to helicopter them out.”
Mat Reid, a former policeman whose home is on a hill and out of the flood waters, said the noise was so loud it woke him up.
“It’s sort of very difficult to comment on what’s happening on the other side of the river, no one can communicate,” Reid said.
“I got a message from a friend earlier this morning when they were on the roof of their house. I’ve been told they’ve been evacuated to the showground.” Reid said he had been getting calls all day from worried family and friends wanting to see if he knew where their loved ones were.
“There’s one girl I don’t even know who called. The least I can do is try and go to the evacuation point and put them back into communication with each other.”
On social media, community members shared a spreadsheet noting who had been found and where they were now.
Cristine Trimmer, who started the list, said people were desperate for news of friends and family.
“The amount of people they are still looking for … that list is in excess of 100 that haven’t made contact yet or don’t have the ability to make contact.”
Trimmer said it was unclear who was being housed at the evacuation centre but a total of 260 people were there according to the local council.
Trimmer, who lives in Queensland but has relatives in the town, said the lack of reception was driving anxiety – but slowly people were being accounted for.
Debbie Rob lives in Forbes, which is also isolated because of flood water, and was desperate to hear about her friend Annmarie Randell who lives in Eugowra.
“I last spoke to her at 10.28am this morning,” Rob said on Monday night. “Then her phone died. All day I have been trying to contact her and reach out for support.”
Rob was able to use social media to find her and Randell has now been listed as safe.
Cooke said four people across NSW had died in the past 62 days as a result of the severe weather but no deaths had been reported in the past 24 hours.
Twelve flood rescue operators were flying in from New Zealand to support exhausted State Emergency Service crews in Parkes, the minister said.
“The SES is now also working with authorities in Singapore and the United States to secure additional support.”
This was the first time the SES had made a request for overseas assistance, Carlene York, the SES commissioner, said.
The NSW premier, Dominic Perrottet, urged people in flood-hit areas to follow emergency warnings.
“It may be the case that you don’t see flooding around you when those orders are put in place – that is because we expect and predict further flooding moving forward,” he said.
He urged people not to drive through flood waters, saying a significant number of rescues were because people tried driving on flooded roads.
“You wouldn’t drive through a bushfire – don’t drive in flood waters.”
Some 118 warnings had been issued by the SES, including for residents to evacuate to higher ground in Cowra, Canowindra, Derrinwong and Eugowra.