Record dam spill swells Central West flood, as more than 100 rescued
One of New South Wales’ largest dams will spill vast amounts of water over the coming days, triggering warnings that overflowing rivers, waterlogged soil and new bands of rain threaten to unleash a rolling series of deadly disasters between now and Christmas.
On Monday night, the NSW State Emergency Service issued an ‘‘evacuate now’’ directive for people in South Albury in the state’s south and Western Plains Tourist Park in the Central West, and urged residents of Forbes to prepare to evacuate before 7am yesterday.
Emergency Services Minister Steph Cooke has called for overseas help to bolster flood rescue efforts, as the record spill from Wyangala dam escalates the flood inundating Central West NSW. Cooke said on Monday the government had called in a dozen flood rescue operators from New Zealand as 70 local government areas in NSW had a natural disaster declaration in place. She said the NSW SES was also working with authorities in Singapore and the United States to secure extra support.
The overnight dam spill on Monday initially released 200,000 megalitres a day, but this quickly increased to 230,000 megalitres a day and is expected to last for days, raising concerns in many towns – including Forbes and Condobolin – as water levels are expected to rise along the Lachlan River and its tributaries. As a comparison, Sydney Harbour holds about 562,000 megalitres.
A WaterNSW spokesperson said the 230,000 megalitre outflow was a record – beating 205,000 megalitres during flooding in 1990. ‘‘The entire Central West of NSW has been hit very hard in the past 24 hours from flooding,’’ Cooke said.
‘‘This [weather] event is now in its 62nd day and every day it throws up new challenges for our communities and for our emergency services, personnel and organisations.’’
The Bureau of Meteorology’s Steve Bernasconi said the potential for more rain across western NSW this weekend meant the risk of further flooding was far from over.
‘‘All the streams are full, all the soil is full, and all the dams are full. So, it really only takes a thimble full of water to cause problems in our western districts at the moment,’’ Bernasconi said.
Cooke said there were nine major flood warnings in place across the state.