The body of a man has been found during the search for two friends who were flung out of a ute and into a flooded New South Wales stream.
The pair were in the rear tray of the vehicle when it was driven on to a flooded causeway at Prestons Creek in the state’s Southern Tablelands on Monday night.
Two men inside the ute’s cabin escaped and swam to safety but the other two men were taken downstream with the vehicle, police said.
Police divers on Thursday afternoon found a man’s body, which is yet to be formally identified.
It comes as farmers face “devastating” losses across central NSW with dangerous flooding continuing to hit the state’s agricultural region, while some residents ignore orders to leave.
Hundreds of residents across inland NSW were again been being ordered to evacuate their homes as Gunnedah faced its fourth major flood in two months.
The NSW State Emergency Service issued 22 emergency warnings overnight, including an evacuation order for northern parts of Gunnedah, as “dangerous” flows from the Peel and Mooki river systems streamed towards the township. Residents had until 9pm to leave.
SES superintendent Mitchell Parker said the urgent order was made to avoid the risk of overnight evacuations. There had been more than 430 SES callouts in the past 24 hours to midday on Thursday, including 15 flood rescues.
There were 23 flood warnings active across large parts of NSW on Thursday, with major flooding expected for the Namoi, Castlereagh, Macquarie, Bogan, Lachlan, Murrumbidgee, Murray, Culgoa, Barwon Darling and Belubula rivers.
In the wheatbelt town of Forbes in the state’s central west, 600 people were told to evacuate their homes by 4pm on Thursday as rising waters threatened to cut off properties and strand residents.
Cattle farmer Charles Laverty was busy sandbagging his property on the outskirts of Forbes with about one-third of his paddocks already underwater.
Continued flooding has hit inland communities hard, as farmers struggle to recover from repeated bouts of destruction to crops and livestock.
“A lot of [my neighbours] have given up on harvesting those areas, which is very expensive,” Laverty said.
“The losses are going to be devastating for them.”
Picking up food supplies by boat - residents in Gunnedah have been evacuated as major flooding hits the north side of town @7NEWSNewEngland pic.twitter.com/pfqzK2oVti
— Toni Ambrogetti (@toniambrogetti) November 2, 2022
Despite warnings from authorities the Lachlan River would on Friday reach levels not seen since 1952, locals remained unsure how the peaks would hit the landscape due to significant changes in infrastructure.
“No one really knows what’s going to happen,” Laverty said.
Some residents in the evacuation zone in Forbes opted to stay in their homes despite urgent warnings from the SES.
Some locals made other preparations, including sourcing generators and bottled water in case they lost access to power and plumbing, Parkes-Forbes NSW Farmers Association vice-chair, Gavin Tom, said.
“The problem isn’t so much whether the house gets inundated – it’s more if the services get affected by the floods,” Tom said.
Record flooding is forecast in Forbes on Friday night when the Lachlan River is expected to peak, NSW SES zone commander, Ben Pickup, said.
He said peaks would continue through to Saturday morning.
“I really encourage the community of Forbes – please listen to the warning information,” he said.
“Please, please follow that messaging.”
The emergency services minister, Steph Cooke, said she understood the exhaustion felt by communities, but warned flooding would continue across inland catchments in coming days.
“Everyone is flood-weary but we need to keep working through this,” she said.
Major flooding on the Lachlan River on Thursday is causing inundations in the town of Nanami, and major flooding continues farther downstream at Condobolin, with the river not expected to fall for weeks.
The Murrumbidgee River has also burst its banks, with major floods peaking at Gundagai on Wednesday night, and major peaks possible at Wagga Wagga on Thursday night.
Cooke expressed her sympathies for the Gunnedah community, which has been hit by seven floods in recent weeks, and Wagga Wagga, which faces its fourth inundation since August.
A number of major roads were closed because of flood waters, cutting off access between Gunnedah and Tamworth.
Gunnedah mayor Jamie Chaffey said the repeated flooding was severely affecting local infrastructure.
“The network is under severe strain, not just from flooding but rain events … the frequency is making it very difficult to get across our network.”
Chaffey is among more than 100 NSW council representatives who have unanimously declared a statewide roads emergency in the wake of this year’s devastating floods.
“We’ve already spent millions just getting roads back open again,” Chaffey said. “It’s not even addressing the issue.”
The Bureau of Meteorology warned that while rainfall had eased across central, north and south-west NSW, ongoing flooding continued through inland NSW where catchments were “very wet” and most dams were at or near capacity.
“A low pressure trough may move through NSW mid to late next week bringing further rainfall,” the bureau said.
The premier, Dominic Perrottet, emphasised the warning that “if it’s flooded, forget it.”
“You wouldn’t drive into a bushfire, don’t drive into flood waters,” he said.
