Mark Palmer knew his phone call with his mother could be cut off at any time. She was panicking as flood waters surged in Eugowra earlier this week.
Palmer lives in North Sydney and when he realised the danger his mother was in on Monday he jumped in his car and attempted to drive to the small town in western New South Wales.
“We drove for hours that night and I stayed on the line with her until it cut out. Her house was inundated in minutes,” Palmer says.
“She couldn’t even close the door behind her as the water rushed in. She had to climb on to a table to survive. She kicked out a window in case she had to jump.
“She saw cars and animals float by in the surging water, it was so powerful she actually couldn’t be reached by emergency services. It was too dangerous. She survived by climbing on to her floating bed and wrapping herself in a blanket to stay warm.”
Palmer says his mother, Gail, was going through “waves of panic”, and was hyperventilating as she watched the water destroy her home and much of the town.
“There were around 12 hours that night where I didn’t think she’d make it. I have no words for how I felt when I saw her afterwards. I hadn’t slept for 24 hours.”
Gail survived the night floating on the mattress inside her house and was picked up by emergency services on Tuesday morning when the water had subsided. Her home, and everything in it, were destroyed.
Palmer arrived later that day after his mother had been rescued. They were reunited at an evacuation centre.
Her story is both miraculous and common. It’s echoed by people across central west NSW over the past seven days.
In one week, the small town of Molong had its CBD wiped out, Forbes was cut in half by a new inland lake and Eugowra was largely destroyed by flooding residents labelled an “inland tsunami”.
One woman died in Eugowra and at least one man is still missing. Forbes experienced its second major flood in two weeks.
The towns – and others such as Condobolin, Cowra and Euabalong – have faced historically high flooding in the past week reflecting the unprecedented challenges facing rural NSW.
Two years of heavy rainfall has meant much of the state and its catchments are saturated, the ground unable to contain all the water it has received, compounding the risk of flooding. The consequences are devastating for the towns unprepared for a future of regular flooding.
Unprecedented destruction
Frustrations boiled over on Friday morning when the NSW premier, Dominic Perrottet, was confronted by a resident in Eugowra about the lack of support the town had received.
“My brother is 80 years old … he’s got cancer bad, he walked out of this town yesterday with someone else’s clothes on. Is that fair?” Peter Jones asked the premier.
“A tsunami – that’s exactly what it was. It’s taken us five days to get absolutely nowhere.”
Eugowra has gone through multiple stages of grief in the days after 90% of its buildings sustained damage from flood waters.
Homes were destroyed or tossed hundreds of metres down the road. Cars and cattle were swept away.
Tess Herbert, who runs farms around Eugowra, was evacuated on Tuesday and said the town was “flattened” by the water.
“It’s a flood creek, we know it floods, but it’s never done this. It’s beyond what anyone could have imagined,” she says.
“No one could prepare – it was too quick, too fast. One minute they were ankle-deep, the next it was up to their waist. That speed meant the elderly or those with children struggled. One of our employees spent eight hours on his roof with his children.
“How people escaped from the water – whether they swam or drove or sat on roofs, those stories need to not be forgotten.”
On Tuesday, it was confirmed Diane Smith, 60, had died in the flood waters. Herbert is a friend of the family and knew Smith – she said the whole community was struggling to come to terms with the loss.
“It has obviously affected the whole community. It’s heart-wrenching. The next couple of days will be difficult.”
The scale of destruction was matched by the shock. Residents hugged on the street in muddied clothes, tears flowing for the lives feared lost and the rebuilding yet to come.
It was a similar feeling in Molong where the CBD was inundated with flood waters. Locals said the water reached as high as the “awnings of the pub” leaving a trail of destruction in its wake.
Volunteer Jenny blinks away tears as she attempts to scrub the local gym clean, saying the town is still unsure just how much was lost.
“Everything has been touched by mud. All the equipment, everything in the office, just everything. The force of the water was shocking, it destroyed windows and tossed debris all over town.”
A cafe and an upmarket restaurant were due to open in the coming months, with residents telling the Guardian they’re mourning the potential lost to the water.
SES chief superintendent Ashley Sullivan says there is still a widespread and significant emergency response across the state – and he doesn’t expect conditions to ease soon.
“This flooding at this rate is anticipated to be around right through Christmas … and right into the new year,” he says.
An uncertain future
As Molong and Eugowra residents grapple with the aftermath of the floods, Forbes residents are waiting for the water to recede so they too can assess the damage and plan to rebuild.
The Lachlan River rose and fell this week just below the record high flood level of 1.8 metres in 1952. The flooded river split the town in two – with one half only accessible via boat, serviced by routine trips operated by NSW SES.
There isn’t the same shock that accompanied the destruction in other towns but a resigned frustration having faced two floods in as many weeks.
Local resident Therese Gunn is anxious about the scale of the damage that could be revealed once the water eventually recedes.
“It’s devastating because people have lost everything, twice,” Gunn said.
“There’s grief and helplessness now as we wait. And with flood insurance being so expensive, some people won’t be able to recover. It can climb to as high as $20,000, some people can’t afford that, and this is a freak of nature. There’s nothing for them.”
The high cost of flood insurance was a recurring theme when the Guardian spoke to residents in these flood-affected towns. Many will rebuild on their own having been unable to afford skyrocketing premiums.
The federal emergency services minister, Murray Watt, admitted on Friday that the $3bn allocated to flood payments in last month’s budget would not be enough.
“It’s realistic to think we’re looking at billions of dollars in damage and cost to the taxpayer in repairs,” Watt told ABC radio.
“It’s a bit too early to be able to put a precise figure on it, but even if you look at the disaster payments which we have provided to people so far, the bill is really racking up and that’s before we look at the immense cost of road and infrastructure repairs which lies ahead. The worst thing is that this isn’t over yet. Everyone is, unfortunately, going to have to be putting their hands in their pockets.”
