A third person has been confirmed dead and another is missing as significant flooding continues on the NSW mid-north coast.
Police said they found the body of a 60-year-old woman in her car in Brooklana, 30km west of Coffs Harbour, on Thursday afternoon.
NSW Police Northern Region Commander David Waddell said the woman was traveling in convoy with a police officer in a sedan on Wednesday evening near Dorrigo when the cars reached ankle-deep floodwaters.
“The officer stopped and told the woman he was not pursuing, and the woman in the SUV decided to continue,” Commander Waddell said.
“He gave her his phone number and told her to proceed with caution and not go into the floodwaters.”
The woman drove another 17 miles and called 30 minutes later for trouble, but police were unable to find her Wednesday evening.
His body was found Thursday afternoon.
“Obviously the officer who spoke to the woman is very traumatized and we are surrounding him with support services,” Commander Waddell said.
“It’s just a tragic circumstance.”
Investigations into the death are ongoing.
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Three dead, one missing
Earlier on Thursday, emergency services crews also found the body of a man in floodwaters near Rosewood, 4km west of Wauchope.
Authorities began searching for the man, believed to be in his 30s, on Wednesday evening following reports he had become stuck in floodwaters while driving.
This comes after police found the body of David Knowles, 63 years old at a flooded house on North Moto Road in Moto, northeast of Taree, on Wednesday afternoon.
His daughter told the ABC her father was found ankle-deep in water after possibly suffering a medical incident.
More than 350 people were rescued by emergency services on Wednesday. (Supplied: Fire and Rescue NSW)
She said she was told her father had been approached by an SES evacuation team on Tuesday, but she told them to prioritize another family further upstream.
He could not subsequently be located.
“He would give you the sweater off your back if you were cold, he was just like that,” Mr Knowles’ daughter said.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese offered his condolences following the news of the 63-year-old's death in a statement on social media.
“This is devastating news…the thoughts of all Australians are with his loved ones and the community at this time.”
A 49-year-old man remains missing from Nymboida, south of Grafton, after he reportedly failed to return home on Wednesday evening after walking near a flooded road.
Emergency services carried out almost 600 flood rescues during the rainy event.
Flooding rain
Torrential rain hit the region from the Central Coast to Grafton during the week, with Taree, Port Macquarie, Wauchope, Kempsey, Macksville and Coffs Harbor among the hardest hit.
The Macleay River moves at high speed under Kempsey Bridge. (ABC News: Emma Rennie)
Rainfall totals include:
- 463 mm in Taree, including a May 24-hour record
- 354 mm at Port Macquarie, including the highest 24-hour total for a month in 51 years
- 263mm at Kempsey
- 533 mm to Careys Peak
The weather system has started to move south and could cause flash flooding along the NSW central coast, south coast and highlands, Sydney and the Blue Mountains.
Along the coast, the SES has 25 evacuation alerts that are still current.
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NSW Premier Chris Minns told the ABC there was a “massive contingent of emergency services on the north coast”.
“There are 2,500 emergency services workers, including 2,200 SES volunteers and professionals, who are on site,” he said.
“More than 500 vehicles and boats, 13 helicopters, hundreds of drones, so it’s a major operation.”
Floodwaters overtook the Kempsey sea wall, causing the CBD to be evacuated. (Provided: Sarah Powick)
An estimated 50,000 people have been warned to prepare for isolation as widespread areas of rain, with locally intense falls, led to new evacuation warnings across much of the region.
Evacuation centers operate at the following locations:
- Dungog RSL Club, Lord Street
- Tuncurry Beach Bowling Club, Parkes Street
- Kempsey Showground, Sea Street in West Kempsey
- Wingham RSL Club, Bent Street
- Club Taree, Wingham Road
- Bulahdelah Golf Club, Recovery Road
- Gloucester Club, Denison Street
- Manning Point Bowling Club, Manning Street
- Panthers Port Macquarie, Bay Street
- Coffs Harbor C.ex, Vernon Street
- Nambucca RSL Club, Nelson Street in Nambucca Heads.
- Old Bar Bowling Club, Belford Street
- Wauchope Showground, High Street
- Coopernook Hall, Macquarie Street
- Urunga CEX, North Street
Water covers Hastings River Drive in Port Macquarie. (ABC Mid Côte Nord: Emma Siossian)
In the Kempsey CBD, floodwaters from the Macleay River have overtaken the sea wall and continue to rise.
The SES coordinated a multi-agency response on the ground to evacuate the area, which includes several hotels.
Low-lying areas of Port Macquarie, including Settlement Point, were flooded, while further north, Coffs Harbour, Bellingen, Macksville and Nambucca experienced flash flooding.
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Coffs Harbor resident Susanna Rixon-Seager said heavy rain caused flash flooding around her home on Grant Close, which backs onto a small creek.
She said more than 215mm of rain had fallen there since 9am on Wednesday.
“We heard heavy rain falling around 5 a.m. (this morning),” Ms Rixon-Seager said.
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“So we looked out the window and we could see him coming down the driveway… there was no way to get out of the house.”
Ms Rixon-Seager said the water had receded and her family planned to stay at home for the rest of the day in line with SES instructions to avoid non-essential travel.
Power outages for days
The weather has been blamed for power outages in thousands of homes from Woolgoolga to Forster.
Essential Energy Mid North Coast operations director Rob Ridley said the worst affected areas were around Taree.
He said falling vegetation and rising floodwaters had damaged power lines and outages could last several days.
The lavender bridge in Bellingen under floodwaters on Wednesday. (ABC Coffs Coast: Charles Rushforth)
“With the floodwaters, we have limited access to a lot of faults,” Mr Ridley said.
“We will be conducting aerial patrols to get an overview of the footprint, but we expect the outages to last for a few more days.“
Flood Insurance
Taree insurance broker Jeremy Thornton said ABC News Radio that getting flood insurance was “impossible” in some parts of the region.
“There are only three companies we can use to provide (insurance) for households in our area,” he said.
“Two of them didn’t quote because of the zip code and the one that did – it was half their annual salary for the year to get insurance.”
But Mr Thornton said insurance companies were not to blame.
“It’s just that this is what happens and it happens too often,” he said.
“They can’t keep up and something has to give in that space.”
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