TOWNS in New South Wales have so far been spared the pain overwhelming Queensland, but thousands of residents were stranded yesterday as rising rivers cut off communities around Tenterfield and Grafton.
Flood warnings were issued yesterday for swathes of the state’s mid-north and north, including a major flood warning for the Clarence River, near Grafton, and minor flood warnings for the Wilsons River at Lismore and the Richmond River at Kyogle.
The Clarence River had risen to 4.2 metres at Grafton yesterday morning and is expected to peak at 6.5 metres early today, cutting the Pacific Highway.
Advertisement: Story continues below
”Today the rivers are rising, tomorrow they’ll be peaking,” SES spokesman Phil Campbell said yesterday. ”There will be a lot of isolation and inconvenience. There may be a small number of evacuations as well.”
The SES performed a number of rescues in the area, including saving the driver of a four-wheel-drive whose vehicle became engulfed in water on a road near Grafton.
Heavy rain in the afternoon made it difficult to predict what lay ahead for the rest of the week.
”There are significant river rises that have been taking place in the past couple of hours,” Clarence Valley SES spokeswoman Erin Pogmore said at 5pm yesterday. ”It’s really a watch and wait-and-see situation.”
The hilly landscape around Lismore was dotted with patches of brown floodwater. Rivers and streams spilled onto outlying properties, while farm dams overflowed to fill small valleys.
Further north, 500 people are isolated at Bonalbo, about 200 at Urbenville and another 300 at Tabulam.
To the south, at Darkwood on the upper Bellinger River more than 500 people are cut off by floodwaters.
The SES performed several rescues at Tenterfield, home to around 2700 people, which was cut off and split in two by rising waters yesterday.
Heavy rain fell across the region, with lighter showers predicted for today and tomorrow.
The village of Copmanhurst, around 25 kilometres west of Grafton on the Clarence River, was cut off yesterday, stranding around 500 residents.
Tony Mortimer from the Copmanhurst Rest Point Hotel said workers had been unable to get to Grafton for work and had little to do but watch the river continue to rise.
”The town’s on a hill but we’re just sort of locked in,” he said. ”People on farms had to move their cattle to higher ground.” There was only one shop in the small town, he said, and it had already run out of bread and milk, but locals in the flood-prone area seemed mostly unfazed.
”Eighteen months ago we had a bigger one than this,” he said. ”People just go with the flow up here.”
The Pacific, Bruxner and New England highways in northern NSW were all at risk of flooding last night.
The Roads and Traffic Authority said possible flood locations on the Pacific Highway included Alipou Creek on the north side of Grafton, Musk Valley Creek to the south, Shark Creek between Grafton and Maclean, and Farlows Flat at Maclean.
The Bruxner Highway was at risk of flooding at Sandy Flat, east of Tenterfield, and between Casino and Tabulam.
