The extent to which flooding cut off several roads in the NSW Hunter region a week ago has been captured in aerial images.
The images released by Nearmap were taken before the flood event in Maitland, Singleton and some rural areas cut off by the floods, and again on Friday July 8, when the Hunter River peaked.
The New England Highway, which connects several major regional centres with the east coast, was cut off at Maitland.
On the outskirts of Newcastle, Maitland is home to more than 90,000 people and the road closure caused heavy traffic on all sides.
Intersecting the flooded highway to the south was Cessnock Road, which was also under water.
It connects to the suburb of Gillieston Heights, the isolated suburb that was relying on the State Emergency Service to ferry in supplies as late as Tuesday.
The closure of Cessnock Road led to more traffic further south on Buchanan Road, between Kurri Kurri and Maitland.
Cessnock Mayor Jay Suvaal has called for the busy thoroughfare to be upgraded to a state road.
"That area is not really suitable for the high level of trucks and things," he said.
"The traffic on there has increased over time through development and with the Hunter Expressway it's now the major route through to Maitland Hospital."
Elsewhere, train tracks and equipment at Telarah were submerged.
Vast flood plains across semi-rural areas went under, where the Hunter River would normally snake through.
Sporting fields at Singleton, including netball courts, were squarely in the path of the Hunter River as it spilled over.
The swollen Hunter River crept into the backyards of these homes in the Singleton suburb of Hunterview.
The road in Lower Belford was overrun by the Hunter River.
The floods peaked higher than the March 2022 flood event, and federal disaster payments were on Tuesday extended to several local government areas including Newcastle, Port Stephens and Muswellbrook.
