A search is underway for two men missing in floodwaters and flash flooding has caused widespread damage across parts of central and southern NSW after torrential rain lashed the region overnight.
Police said they were last night called to Bevendale, about 50km east of Boorowa, following reports a vehicle had been swept into floodwaters after attempting to cross a flooded causeway.
Two men managed to free themselves from the cabin of the vehicle, however, another two men, believed to have been travelling in the tray, have not been located.
A search overnight was suspended due to poor light, but it has since resumed.
Meanwhile, dozens of homes and caravan parks across five separate towns in the NSW Snowy Valley and Southern Tablelands were ordered to evacuate as heavy rain causes dangerous flash flooding and renewed river rises.
In Cootamundra, several streets had to be evacuated late on Monday night due to dangerous flash flooding of the Muttama Creek.
Member for Cootamundra and Emergency Services Minister Steph Cooke said the order was for 10 streets and about 100 homes, with around 200 homes potentially impacted by the event.
This included residents of a retirement village, some of whom had evacuated by boat.
Emergency services also carried out more than 50 flood rescues.
"The weather event that we saw come through from late yesterday afternoon and overnight has really caused some substantial damage and wreaked havoc right across the region," Ms Cooke said.
"It's a long time since we've seen flooding hit the town in the way that it did last night and so people were having to work closely with the SES."
The Muttama Creek splits the town in half, meaning two evacuation centres had to be set up so people could access them depending on what side of the river they were on.
Ms Cooke says the damage from flash flooding is widespread and includes towns such as Young, Temora and Yass.
She said talks were underway with the federal government about specialised assistance for affected communities.
"There are discussions underway at present as to whether the events of the last 24 hours or so warrant a separate and unique natural disaster declaration for the areas impacted," Ms Cooke said.
The Hilltops Council, which includes Young and Boorowa, has urged people to delay their travel plans with several roads under water or damaged.
Parts of Adelong, Tumut and Cowra were also told to leave after either flash flooding or rising rivers hit the town.
Overflow flooding from the Boorowa Dam has forced the evacuation parts of Boorowa, where 2,000 homes were also left without power.
WaterNSW is increasing flows from Burrinjuck Dam to 110,000 megalites a day from 92,000ML.
At Gunning, flash flooding saw water surge through the main street.
Nearly a metre of water went through the Telegraph Hotel.
"We had a massive, big storm come through — poured, torrential rain, I've never seen anything like it," owner Sue Smith said.
Upper Lachlan Shire Mayor Pam Kensit said it was the worst flood the town had seen and that many shops were inundated.
"It happened so very quickly," she said.
"At one point they were in their motel just mopping up a little area of water and it just suddenly came from both sides."
In Forbes, strong winds ripped air conditioner units from houses.
Josh Clark from the SES western zone said Molong Creek hit the major flood level overnight causing inundation in parts of the town and at nearby Borenore.
"That was a very rapid and evolving situation that occurred in a very short period of time, due to the amount of heavy rainfall in the catchment area," he said.
In northern NSW, the town of Quirindi, south of Tamworth, was divided by floodwater, which was expected to take up to seven hours to recede.
At nearby Nundle, campers at a caravan park on the Peel River had to be evacuated at 5am after upwards of 80mm of rain fell in several hours.
Major floods, more rain forecast
Forbes is preparing for yet another major flood that is expected to reach levels not seen in 70 years.
The State Emergency Service said the Lachlan River was expected to reach 10.8 metres at the Iron Bridge gauge in the town from Friday.
Forbes SES incident controller Rocky Walshaw said they were expecting water in the central business district.
"The water inundates quite a fair bit of the township of Forbes, surrounds the business area [and] inundates some of the businesses as well," he said.
Major flooding has already reached Canowindra in the Central West, with the Lachlan River likely to exceed December 2010 flood levels this afternoon.
Along the Lachlan River, Gooloogong has been warned to prepare to isolate.
Spills from Wyangala Dam are combining with inflows from the Boorowa River, with forecasts for major flooding at Nanami from tomorrow evening.
Major flooding is expected at Bathurst this evening, and the SES has warned low-lying properties, roads and rivers may be affected.
The Bureau of Meteorology is also warning the rain will lead to major flooding at Gundagai, similar to April 1989 levels, and would be its worst flood in 10 years.
Homes, however, may not be inundated.
Josh Clark from the SES western zone said the bad weather was not over yet.
"We saw that wind event, we've seen the rain, and today we're looking at potential severe thunderstorms across the area again, and not to mention that late this evening and into Wednesday morning we're expecting snow," he said.
Ms Cooke had a similar warning for the state.
"We can continue to see this occur over the coming weeks ahead, in fact there is another system forecast for next week," she said.
Phones down, roads closed
Telstra believes flooding was the likely cause of widespread outages to its services across southern NSW and northern Victoria this morning.
The company said in a statement the power outage at Boorowa and a cable cut at Adelong forced the outage from about 3am, which was being progressively restored.
The Newell Highway is closed to all traffic between Forbes and West Wyalong.
The road closure is in addition to ongoing closures of the Newell and Sturt highways around Narrandera.
Editor’s note (November 4, 2022): This article original stated Gundagai's flood peak would be it’s worst in 33 years, it has been amended to correct it to 10 years.
