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Minor flooding is continuing at Wauchope this afternoon where the water level of the Hastings River was falling.
As of 1pm today the river was falling 2.5 metres.
The Hastings River at Settlement Point is currently peaking at 1.2 metres, with minor flooding.
Closures:
The SES closed the main link between Beechwood and Wauchope at around 10.30pm last night.
Deputy Controller Gerry de Vries has advised motorists to use the alternate route around Redbank Road and onto Stony Creek Road in the interim.
“We will keep accessing the bridge and the river and have another update at around noon today,” Mr de Vries said.
“There was lots of debris coming down the river last night and in particular a large tree branch actually speared through the railing and went half way across the roadway, it was that large.
“We also had closed the King Creek bridge [on King Creek Road] last night but it was open again this morning.”
SES volunteers had been kept busy with several roof jobs and sandbagging taking place in the Wauchope, King Creek and Rawdon Island areas in the past few days.
“There’s been a steady flow of work to do,” Mr de Vries said.
“Our main volunteer workforce is just seven volunteers and we sent them home last night so they could have a good night’s sleep and be ready to go first thing this morning.”
Mr de Vries said the river gauge was ‘certainly not rising but not falling either’ with all eyes on the weather forecast for the next few days.
“What we’ve been told is that it should be easing off now … we have our fingers crossed but it still looks like we will get these continued showers for some time.
“[But] we have been pretty lucky with regards the high winds. Few jobs a few trees down around the place and as soon as the crews get in and we will be off on the road again.”
Mr de Vries said the SES was responsible for advising Port Macquarie-Hastings Council and the RMS of any possible road closures.
The contact number for the SES in emergency situations is 132500.
