The Lachlan River was nearing the major flooding marker of 10.36 metres on Wednesday morning and the Bureau of Meteorology has predicted flooding levels could peak at 10.55m.
In 2016, the area recorded 10.65 metres. Nearby, major flooding has also occurred Nanami where the river peaked on Monday evening at a level 0.6 metres higher than the September 2016 flood. It has since started to recede.
NSW Minister for Police and Emergency Services David Elliott said there were no flood rescues overnight, but the waters would remain in the region for several days.
“It can be many days before some of these floodwaters actually make their way to their final resting place, so it’s important that people are continuously situationally aware of how the roads are affected by the floodwaters,” he said.
Bureau of Meteorology forecaster Hugh McDowell said that, while weather conditions were easing around Forbes for the next few days, modelling showed significant rain could return for much of the state on Sunday.
“There’s a low-pressure system moving across south-eastern Australia late on Saturday and into Sunday, with the potential for significant rainfall,” he said. “Forbes could see between 15 and 30mm on the forecast range, which will be fairly unwelcome.”
But he said the weather systems were still predicting a few different possibilities, so final predictions would have to wait until closer to the time.
“It’s not just Forbes we are concerned about. It’s the whole of the western slopes and plains and parts of the South Coast. Everywhere is pretty wet and the dams are pretty full. Sunday’s got a bit of potential to be an issue, but we’re monitoring carefully,” he said.
Mr McDowell added that the recent wet weather was a result of last year’s La Nina and a negative Indian Ocean Dipole over the winter, which had resulted in above-average winter–spring rainfall over parts of southern Australia. The bureau has issued a La Nina alert for this year, but it will be some weeks before the event is confirmed.
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SES Commissioner Carlene York urged residents who are hesitant to evacuate to follow the advice on Tuesday.
“The peak will be overnight in the darkness and into tomorrow. And what I don’t want is that you put our members in danger by asking for help as the water is lapping around your house as we said it would,” she said.
Commissioner York said that, while the water was rising slowly overall, “it doesn’t mean there aren’t patches where it’s very swift”.
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Forbes endures agonising wait for floods to arrive as 1800 residents evacuated
Source: Philippines Alive
