More than 600 people have been rescued since waters started rising. Photo: Supplied / Fire and Rescue NSW
Record floods cut a destructive path through eastern Australia on Friday, caking houses in silt, washing out roads and separating 50,000 people from help.
Four bodies have been pulled from vast tides of floodwater engulfing parts of northern New South Wales, a fertile region of rivers and valleys some 400 kilometres up the coast from Sydney.
Salvage crews were preparing to launch a major clean-up operation as waters started receding Friday morning, surveying the damage from half a year's worth of rain dumped in just three days.
"So many businesses have had water through and it's going to be a massive cleanup," said Kinne Ring, mayor of the flood-stricken farming town of Kempsey.
"Houses have been inundated," she told national broadcaster ABC.
"There's water coming through the bottom of houses, it's really awful to see and the water is going to take a bit of time to recede."
State Emergency Service boss Dallas Burnes said more than 2000 workers had been deployed on rescue and recovery missions.
"A real focus for us at the moment will be resupplying the isolated communities," he said, adding that 50,000 people were still stranded.
Burnes said rescue crews had plucked more than 600 people to safety since waters started rising earlier this week.
People clambered atop cars, houses and highway bridges before helicopters winched them away.
Although the floods were easing, Burnes said the stagnant lakes of muddy water still posed a threat - including from snakes that may have slithered into homes in search of shelter.
"Floodwaters have contaminants. There can be vermin, snakes. You need to assess those risks.
"Electricity can also pose a danger as well."
A car submerged in a flooded area in the New South Wales town of Taree. Photo: Supplied/Instagram
On Thursday afternoon, police recovered the body of a 60-year-old woman in her car at Brooklana, 30km west of Coffs Harbour.
NSW Police Northern Region Commander David Waddell said the woman had been travelling in convoy with a police officer in a sedan on Wednesday night near Dorrigo, when the cars reached ankle deep floodwaters.
"The officer stopped and told the woman he wasn't continuing, and the woman in the 4WD decided to continue," Commander Waddell said.
"He gave her his phone number and told her to continue with caution and not to enter floodwaters."
The woman travelled another 17km and rang 30 minutes later in trouble, but police were unable to find her on Wednesday night.
Her body was located on Thursday afternoon (local time).
"Obviously the police officer who spoke to the woman is very traumatised and we are wrapping support services around him," Commander Waddell said.
"It's just a tragic circumstance."
Investigations into the death are ongoing.
Earlier Thursday, emergency service crews also found the body of a man in floodwaters near Rosewood, 4km west of Wauchope.
Authorities started searching for the man, who is believed to be in his 30s, on Wednesday night following reports he had become stuck in floodwaters while driving.
It comes after police found the body of 63-year-old David Knowles in a flooded home on North Moto Road in Moto, north-east of Taree, on Wednesday afternoon.
His daughter told the ABC her father had been found in ankle deep water after likely suffering a medical incident.
She said she had been told her father was approached by an SES evacuation crew on Tuesday, but told them to prioritise another family further upstream.
He could not be located afterwards.
"He would give you the jumper on your back if you were freezing, he was just like that," Knowles's daughter said.
Water covers Hastings River Drive at Port Macquarie. Photo: ABC Mid North Coast / Emma Siossian
The storms have dumped more than six months' worth of rain over three days, the government weather bureau has said, smashing flood-height records in some areas.
"These are horrific circumstances," Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said Friday as he travelled into the disaster zone.
"The Australian Defence Force will be made available. There's going to be a big recovery effort required," he told local radio.
"There's been massive damage to infrastructure and we're going to have to all really pitch in."
In the town of Taree, business owner Jeremy Thornton said the "gut-wrenching" flood was among the worst he had seen.
"It is pretty tough, we've had a few moments but you have to suck it up and push on," he told AFP on Thursday.
"We are reliving it every second - hearing the rain, hearing the helicopters, hearing the siren."
Locals spotted dead cows washing up on beaches after swollen rivers swept them from their pastures inland.
The government has declared a natural disaster, unlocking greater resources for affected areas.
Flooding rain
Torrential rain has pelted the area from the Central Coast to Grafton during the week, with Taree, Port Macquarie, Wauchope, Kempsey, Macksville and Coffs Harbour among the hardest hit.
The Macleay River is moving at speed under the Kempsey Bridge. Photo: ABC/Emma Rennie
Rain totals include:
- 463mm at Taree, including a 24-hour May record
- 354mm at Port Macquarie, including the highest 24-hour total for any month in 51 years
- 263mm at Kempsey
- 533mm at Careys Peak
- The weather system has begun tracking south and could lead to flash flooding along the NSW central coast, southern coast and highlands, Sydney and the Blue Mountains.
Along the coastline the SES has 25 evacuation warnings still current.
NSW Premier Chris Minns told the ABC there was a "massive emergency service contingent on the Mid North Coast".
"There are 2500 emergency service workers, including 2200 SES volunteers and professionals that are onsite," he said.
"Over 500 vehicles and boats, 13 helicopters, hundreds of drones, so this is a major operation."
An estimated 50,000 people have been warned to prepare for isolation, as widespread areas of rain, with locally intense falls, have led to new evacuation warnings across much of the region.
Evacuation centres are operating across New South Wales.
Flood insurance
Taree insurance broker Jeremy Thornton told ABC News Radio that getting flood insurance was "impossible" in some parts of the region.
"There are only three companies we can use that do householders' [insurance] for our area," he said.
"Two of them didn't quote because of the postcode and the one that did quote - it was half their annual wage for the year to get insurance."
But Thornton said the insurance companies were not to blame.
"It's just that this is what happens and it's happening too often," he said.
"They can't keep up and something's gotta give in that space."
'Compelling evidence'
From the arid outback to the tropical coast, swaths of Australia have recently been pummelled by wild weather.
The oceans surrounding Australia have been "abnormally warm" in recent months, according to Australia's government weather bureau.
Warmer seas evaporate more moisture into the atmosphere, which can eventually lead to more intense rains.
Although difficult to link to specific disasters, climate change is already fuelling more extreme weather patterns, scientists warn.
Flood modelling expert Mahdi Sedighkia said this week's emergency offered "compelling evidence" of how climate change could affect regional weather patterns.
- AFP, with ABC
