Locals in Eugowra are calling it a tsunami, a “tidal wave of biblical proportions” that came as a “terrifying” wall of water from beyond the hills and obliterated the New South Wales town.
Lenise Mantell’s home was tossed 400 metres down the road, spinning in the flood waters. She said she was lucky she wasn’t inside it, saying she just barely escaped.
“The fence behind my house was covered in debris and crops, it was holding the water back as we tried to salvage as much as we can. It was shin deep then, by the time we got to my car, it was waist deep.
“We could see the wave chasing us in the rearview mirror as we drove off, it was utterly terrifying.”
Mantell is surveying the damage to her home as she speaks. The living room and kitchen are covered in crops and mud, there are holes in the walls and yet strangely, some of it has remained intact, as though the house was literally picked up and relocated.
“I just feel very lucky I wasn’t in there at the time,” she says. “Its very surreal. Some clothes and plants were salvageable, but everything else is destroyed.
“The rent will go up though, it’s in a central location now,” she laughed.
Mantell’s exhausted resignation rings true for many of the stunned residents of the small town in the state’s central west.
Much of Eugowra has begun the process of cleaning up after a flood they never expected to be so violent, with residents reporting the water reached over a metre high in places.
Cabonne Shire Council say 90% of buildings in the town have sustained some damage.
An alarm, usually reserved for bushfire warnings, sounded at 4am on Monday as waters surged.
The flooding claimed the life of 60-year-old medical receptionist Diane Smith, who had been missing since Monday. Police confirmed the body of a woman was found, with an elderly man, 85-year-old Ljubisa “Les” Vugec, also missing.
Smith’s brother, Daniel Townsend, runs the local newsagent, and had been waiting anxiously for news on her whereabouts as he surveyed his destroyed business.
“It was a wave of water, and there was nothing anyone could do, everything in here is destroyed, it just demolished everything.”
“But it’s all material stuff compared to my sister. I can’t even begin to tell you how I’m feeling. I feel terrible.”
A common refrain among locals as they process the damage is that the town looks like a war zone. The sheer violence of the water is on full display, with cars tossed on to their sides, with glass and debris scattered across the streets.
Bulldozers and helicopters fill the air with noise, and locals hug each other in mud drenched clothes.
Robert Cross was lucky enough to be on hand to save his mother, who was clinging to her fence when the water surged through.
Cross’s wife, Susan, said it was “touch and go” with her mother-in-law.
“She was holding on to the fence, we really didn’t know if she’d get out, we haven’t spoken about it but as we process, we realise she might not have been with us today.
“We’re calling it a tsunami, because what else would you call it? Within five minutes it was five feet high. We just can’t believe it. The water was indescribable. If you didn’t see it, you wouldn’t believe it.
“We’re in shock, in disbelief. It’s never been this bad in Eugowra, never. I kept telling myself this isn’t happening, how can this be happening?
“The whole town is in shock, we’re all just looking around, wondering if this is real or a nightmare.”
Curtis and Darren Wykamp are cleaning out their father’s home, after he was airlifted off his roof on Monday. The brothers carry out pieces of destroyed furniture, stepping between mud and rubble.
Curtis says the house needs to be levelled as the water got into every nook and crevice.
“Its just complete destruction, this house pretty much needs to be bulldozed, the water filled up the bottom level. I can only describe it as a war zone. There’s nothing salvageable here.”
Their father was due to retire in December, and is now staying at an emergency shelter in Orange.
“It’s pretty tough seeing this, it’s heartbreaking to have to go through his home and throw everything out. He was stuck on his roof for five or six hours, he was fairly emotional when he saw us yesterday though.”
At St Joseph’s Catholic school, learning support teacher Therese Welsh says everything at the school has been destroyed.
“Its very confronting to see. It was a deluge of biblical proportions, and we expected some flooding, but not like this,” she said.
“They couldn’t even get boats out to help people, the currents were too strong.”
Local volunteer Pat Anderson is helping remove the mud from the church, and as he leans on his shovel, he says the town will “never be the same.”
“There are a lot of retired folk here, lots of people who came here looking for cheaper housing. What will they do now? It’s never going to be the same.”
