Update: Wednesday 6pm
'ABSOLUTE BEDLAM' was the situation at Max Wake's dairy farm late on Wednesday afternoon, after a long night and even longer day moving hundreds of cattle to higher ground as the Hunter River threatened to break its banks.
Mr Wake has been in the business for 47 years, he survived the horror 2007 Singleton floods, relentless drought and the deluge in March - but it never gets easier.
"It's been bedlam today [Wednesday], we got up last night when they were predicting 13.1 metres, which wasn't all that bad, but when we got up this morning it was 13.8 and we have been shifting cattle all day," he said.
"There's water all over the flats at Whittingham, we've been shifting fertiliser up onto higher ground and hopefully we won't have to move the milkers.
"It's a bit trying, we had a lot of feed we had planted and it's all under water again."
By lunchtime Mr Wake had already moved 140 head of cattle to higher ground at the saleyards or to neighbouring properties, but with 270 milkers still in the shed - the situation was dire.
"It's not going to be a good afternoon or night," he said.
"With a dairy farm we have to try to milk the cows, provided the water doesn't get too high you can do that, but if it gets to 14 metres we will be in trouble.
"In 2007 it was 14.1m, when it got that high it was almost in our house, it was in the dairy."
Over at the Hunter Regional Livestock Exchange, hundreds of head of cattle poured in by the hour as farmers tried desperately to salvage stock.
Regional manager Brock Syphers said they'd already cancelled Wednesday's sale and it's likely Saturday's won't go ahead either.
"At the moment people are madly bringing in horses, cattle and sheep to keep them high, dry, fed and out of harm's way," he said.
"We're quite lucky to have 500-odd pens there so we can house quite a few, Singleton has been very unfortunate with a few flood warnings but this is the first where livestock have started to turn up so that's an indication of the severity."
By mid-afternoon on Wednesday, the New England Highway was shut in both directions at Singleton as water inundated the road.
Businesses made the mad scramble for sandbags in Singleton as rising flood waters forced many to close their doors on Wednesday.
It's a real financial concern for some, as Singleton Business Chamber president Sue Gilroy called for the state and federal governments to step in with more support.
"There are plenty of homeowners and businesses in Singleton and places like Bulga and Broke that do lose revenue, even if it's just closing for half a day, so if it's ongoing I would certainly hope a state of emergency may be declared so they can get that support.
"People are concerned, I don't think any of us have seen an evacuation warning for the town - I went to get sandbags and it felt like the world had gone crazy.
"People didn't know what to do - I know people have actually left town even though it was only a warning, so I don't think we are out of the woods yet."
Singleton is not currently among the 23 local government areas announced by the federal and NSW governments eligible for disaster assistance.
Ausgrid warned it was prepared to shut off the town's power supply at short notice if conditions continued to worsen, with concerns live electrical assets could pose a risk to the community.
Earlier
AS SINGLETON faces a major flood evacuation warning, mayor Sue Moore has warned the community to hope for the best and prepare for the worst.
With evacuation orders already in place for the Bulga, Broke, Combo, Whittingham, Scotts Flat, Glennriding and Dunolly areas, rising flood waters at the Hunter River near Singleton have the community on edge.
"I'm sure everyone is quite nervous, and I hope they are following directions and getting prepared if something like that comes here," Cr Moore said.
"It would be absolutely devastating of course, and we hope it doesn't get to that but at this stage everyone needs to follow directions, be prepared, don't drive through flood waters and listen to the SES messages.
"As farmers you get used to it, but being in the township itself it's distruptive, it impacts on the playing fields, leaves us with a mess to clean up and of course people have their houses, livelihoods and businesses interrupted.
"Singleton is a close-knit community, we always pull together and help each other and I know they will again.
"But with more rainfall predicted, it's not over by a long shot."
The SES has warned the Lower Hunter River is likely to exceed the major flood level at 13m late this morning, and may reach heights of 13.8m in the afternoon.
As the rain continues to pelt the region, farmers in low-lying areas have already begun the arduous task of moving livestock to higher ground as road closures and rising flood waters wreak havoc across the community.
St Catherine's Catholic College agriculture teacher Joanna Towers was faced with the task of moving 25 head of cattle, sheep and an alpaca from the school farm - calling around desperately for cattle trucks to help.
"We have pigs left but I can't move them, they're up as high as they can go and hopefully they'll be alright," she said.
"It is scary, we've moved them to the sale yards but all the trucks are really busy driving around carting animals up to higher ground, we were lucky to have people give us a hand.
"We had so many offers of help to move and help at the farm, it is nice when people get together even though they're flat out themselves - they came to give us a hand so you don't feel alone."
Ms Towers lives closeby on Queen Street, if the flood waters exceed 14 metres her home is at risk of being flooded.
"We're trying to get sandbags but hopefully we have time," she said.
"It's built up high but we have some stuff in the garage, hopefully it won't get that high but it's still raining and it's scary, it's the unknown."
For business owners like Three Sistas Cafe operator Rebecca Revie, the threat of yet another flood is weighing heavy on her shoulders, just months after they were forced to close amid rising water in March.
Ms Revie closed the cafe doors on John Street in a rush on Tuesday, after she received word her hometown of Bulga was close to being cut off within the hour.
"Someone sent word that we had an hour until they closed the bridge, so I rushed to grab milk and bread so I'd be okay for a couple of days and I'm glad I did because now I can't get to the Bulga shop," she said.
"The cops said I had to drive through Broke which was worse than here, and I had to drive through a lot of water to get home.
"This morning we were totally cut off and I can't get to the bridge."
With deliveries still en route to the cafe, she organised family members to open the doors and neighbouring shop owners to start sand-bagging.
Even if the shop comes out of the floods unscathed, Ms Revie said the financial burden of closing is hard to manage.
"You shut the door for two or three days and can't pay the rent - it's a continual battle," she said.
"We only opened in 2019 and we've had fires and floods, and more floods.
"It does impact me greatly because I'll be on business loan number three to be able to pay the rent again and I'm down income, I think most people understand but it's that never-ending saga of not knowing what's going to happen."
For emergency help in floods and storms, call the NSW State Emergency Service on 132 500. In life-threatening situations call triple zero (000) immediately.
