A frightening flood rescue at Comobella near Wellington on Sunday night could have ended “much worse”, according to the State Emergency Service (SES).
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SES Macquarie region operations officer Gavin Arnold reported of the event as he warned motorists not to take risks.
A minor flood warning for the Bell River remained in place on Tuesday.
Mr Arnold said two people in a large truck became trapped when they attempted to cross a flooded causeway on Cobbora Road at Mitchell Creek.
The pair had attempted to cross the floodwater but, realising the danger of the situation, began to reverse before becoming stuck.
“When you looked at that causeway it was quite frightening,” Mr Arnold said.
“The width, the depth, the speed the water was flowing, I was quite frightened at how much worse the situation could have been.”
Instead, the pair was rescued without incident, Mr Arnold said, and transported away from the scene.
It was one of eight rescues attended by Macquarie region volunteers in less than 12 hours, between 5.30pm on Sunday and 4am on Monday.
“It is a lot in one short period, in one night,” Mr Arnold said.
“Most of them were associated with people driving into floodwater. . . so people were driving into causeways that were swollen and became stranded in the middle of the causeway.
“When we had the rain a couple of weeks ago we had similar numbers [of rescues] but they were spread over a long period and more units.”
In the 24 hours to 9am on Monday 27 millimetres fell at Wellington.
“People don’t realise the dangers of driving through floodwaters, they don’t realise the risk that they’re putting themselves and the rescuers in,” Mr Arnold said.
“It may not look deep or very wide but fast-flowing water changes the situation quite dramatically.
“The risk that you place on your life is not worth [it].”
The SES reported on Tuesday minor flooding was occurring along the Bell River at Wellington where the river was starting to fall slowly after a peak of 5.2 metres about 6pm on Monday.
It was 3.5m and falling at 8am on Tuesday.
Minor flooding was also occurring along the Macquarie River at Wellington where the river peaked late on Monday night due to renewed releases from Burrendong Dam.
