FOR many Broke residents devasted by this month's floods, the year ahead is shaping up to be a "waiting game".
Evelyn Hardy said it could be months until repair work on her home in the village is started. In the meantime, she is living in her son's "small three bedroom house" with four adults, a teenager and an eight-year-old.
"I'm sleeping in the office and my husband is on a fold out camper bed," Ms Hardy said. "If it is less than a year before we are back in our home I will be very surprised."
During the flooding, a section of Broke Road connecting the town to Singleton also went under water and was destroyed.
On Wednesday, workers from the Broke Fordwich Private Irrigation District and Waterways of Singleton were working to restore around 150 metres of irrigation line which was damaged along with the road, but residents have no answers as to when the road will be operational again.
Singleton council's director of infrastructure and planning services, Justin Fitzpatrick-Barr, said the council has engaged a consultant to expedite designs for repairs and officers will liaise with Transport for NSW once the draft designs are finalised.
"Council is bound to comply with our design and procurement policies and at this stage we cannot put a timeline on this process," Mr Fitzpatrick-Barr said.
"We understand the frustrations of the community and we are working through this process as quickly as we can."
Upper Hunter MP Dave Layzell said while it is looking unlikely there will be a "temporary workaround" for the stretch of road, he is working closely with council to find alternatives.
"If it's a six-to-12-month project then we really need to look at some sort of workaround."
At the same time, Mr Layzell is disagreeing with the Hunter's federal Labor MP Dan Repacholi about pumping of stagnant water in the town.
As a committee member of the Broke Residents Community Association and secretary of Broke Hall, Ms Hardy said she got the call not long before 5pm on July 5 to open the hall up as an evacuation centre.
As the night went on and the back area of the hall started to go under water, Ms Hardy said she knew there would be water in her house.
Converted into a dwelling in the 1940s, Ms Hardy's home was formerly Broke's "apple packing shed" and she said the original structure is around 170 years old.
While the building has seen a number of floods, Ms Hardy said the most recent ones caused the most extensive damage.
"Double bricked and rendered walls have started to crack, the whole floor will probably have to be lifted and a lot of the other walls removed," she said.
"With help from the Bulga Coal boys and the army we have removed all our carpet."
Ms Hardy said she has had an assessor through the building but can't move any of her salvaged items until a "restorer comes to box it up and look at the structural damage", which won't happen for at least another week.
Ms Hardy said her biggest concern at the moment is to get her possessions out of the house before mould "takes over".
