Flooding and road closures have dogged the region due to wet weather this week, but change is on the way.
Heavy rain and flash flooding has ravaged the region, leaving Port Macquarie all but cut off, but clearer skies should revive spirits from today.
Dick Whitaker, Senior Meteorologist at The Weather Channel, said a low-pressure cell located to the north-east of Brisbane intensified, moving south-west towards the region.
This sequence of events produced increasing rain over the North Coast and Mid-North Coast through to today, however flash flooding alerts are still active.
Rainfall totals well in excess of 250mm over those days drenched the region, cutting off the Oxley Highway, all northbound traffic on the Pacific Highway and dozens of roads across the region.
On Tuesday alone, several roads were closed due to localised flooding from wet weather, including Bains Bridge, Wauchope, Pembroke Road, King Creek, Timber Bridge, Rollands Plains Road at the bridge over the Wilson River and Houston Mitchell Road — and that was just the beginning.
By Wednesday Hastings River Drive was cut off at Tuffins Lane both directions.
Also closed was Rollands Plains at Wilson River Bridge, Forbes River Road, Pembrooke Road at the viaduct, Beechwood at Bains Bridge, Logans Crossing at Kendall, Black Creek Road at Kendall, Port Lane at Oxley Highway, Rawdon Island roads, and lower areas of Short Street in Port’s CBD experienced localised flooding, along with Settlement Point Drive.
River rises were also of concern and intermittent flooding took place at Wauchope with a peak at about six metres at 1pm on Wednesday.
At Kindee Bridge a peak near 9.5 metres around 7am yesterday caused major flooding.
Settlement Point reached 1.6 metres at 9pm Tuesday night with the high tide causing moderate flooding.
Residents on Rawdon Island were also evacuated due to safety concerns as a result of flooding.
As at 7.30am on Wednesday the Hibbard Ferry was not operating due to the height of the water on the north access ramp.
The Settlement Point ferry remained operational.
All sports fields in Port Macquarie, Wauchope and Laurieton were closed until further notice.
FloodSafe advice is available at www.ses.nsw.gov.au
For emergency assistance call the SES on telephone number 132 500.
For life threatening emergencies, call 000 immediately.
