The body of a second man who died when a ute was swept into New South Wales flood waters last week has been found in the southern tablelands, as towns throughout the state and in Victoria remain on high alert.
NSW police confirmed on Sunday that police divers had found the man’s body after the ute was swept off a flooded causeway in Bevendale, about 280km south-west of Sydney, on Monday.
The first body was found on Thursday. Two other men in the ute at the time managed to swim to safety.
“While the bodies are yet to be formally identified, they are believed to be the missing men,” police said. “The search operation has concluded and a report will be prepared for the coroner.”
The floods crisis continues across NSW and Victoria but waters were subsiding in parts of the states.
Some 20,000 residents are expected to remain without hot water and gas for cooking in Bathurst, Lithgow, Oberon and Wallerawang for another month after a gas pipeline was damaged due to the Macquarie River flooding.
The Lachlan River at Forbes in the NSW central-west reached a peak of about 10.7 metres on Saturday – slightly below the record set in 1952.
The town has been effectively cut in half due to road closures although it remained too early to measure the scale of the damage.
“It’s going to be a big couple of days of emergency response in this community until these flood waters recede and then we can get in and do those damage assessments,” State Emergency Service chief superintendent Ashley Sullivan told ABC TV.
The SES Forbes unit commander, Robert Walshaw, expected the clean-up to be a slow process because it would take several days for the flood waters to drain.
“I’ve seen shots of it from the air … and it’s just water everywhere,” he said.
There were warnings in place for Forbes residents regarding fast-flowing water that could have contaminants such as toxic chemicals and sewerage.
The SES expects that Condobolin, on the Lachlan further downstream, will be impacted by flooding later this week.
In Wagga Wagga, evacuation orders were lifted and people were told they could return to their homes after the Murrumbidgee River peaked on Friday at 9.72 metres – the highest level in a decade.
There were major flood warnings in place across NSW on Sunday morning including for potential inundation at Narrandera on Tuesday.
Renewed river rises were likely at Carrathool and farther downstream at Hay, with major flooding at Hay possible from mid-November.
There were 291 calls for SES assistance in the 24 hours to 4pm, including 11 flood rescues, with 99 warnings – including 16 emergency warnings – still in place.
The NSW premier, Dominic Perrottet, said authorities were better prepared compared to previous floods earlier this year in Lismore, which he described as “a freak weather event”.
He noted the rapid deployment of 50 ADF personnel to help with rescues and clean-up in Forbes, Moama and Moree as a sign that his government was already implementing lessons from the flood inquiry report released in August.
Perrottet said that assessments were under way on whether federal assistance would be sought for those impacted by the gas outage, with the deputy premier, Paul Toole, saying that the owner of the gas pipeline, APA Group, was working “on a range of short and long-term solutions to restore gas supply as safely and as quickly possible”.
In Victoria, authorities warned people at Kenley just outside Swan Hill on the Murray River to evacuate immediately on Sunday morning. More than 40 flood alerts remained active in the state.
Water levels at Mildura were expected to continue rising throughout November before a possible high in December.
Along the Murray River at Echuca and Moama, major flooding was expected to continue during the week although water levels were falling.
