Two rescues in the space of two hours: 'Please, please don't drive through flood waters' urges SES

Over the past three days stretching from Bermagui to Eden, Bega Valley SES teams have responded to 19 jobs for trees down, roof leaks, and to assist with sandbagging.

However, they had an extremely busy morning Friday, December 10, with two rescues and one evacuation in the space of only a couple of hours.

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The first rescue was called in approximately 10.55am with teams on site by 11.15am to rescue a man and his two dogs in a car at Double Creek. The man allegedly tried to drive through flood waters at a causeway.

Four flood water rescue technicians attended to retrieve the man who could not get to the edge of the bank.

SES said its Arch Angel dinghy was used during the rescue where one side was secured to somewhere safe and the rescue technicians manoeuvred their way across to carry out the rescue.

Another rescue call came in at 12.50pm after a woman and two children got stuck in a car in flood waters on the Jellat flat, Tathra Road.

Luckily a team from Sydney was close by trying to stop people driving across Tarraganda Bridge and were able to attend to the rescue in lightning speed.

At the time the Bega flood technicians were out at Wapengo after a number of vehicles had to be towed out of a causeway. The team was running checks to make sure cars did not cross the flood waters.

The woman and children were rescued by the SES through use of the Arch Angel with assistance from the VRA, RFS, and Bega Police. They were out of the water by 1.30pm.

SES Acting Divisional Commander for the Sapphire Coast Patricia Daly said the woman and the children were safe but were being checked by ambulance when they left the scene. The man and his two dogs were also safe from danger.

Meanwhile, around 8.30am Friday a woman from North Bega was evacuated from her home by SES workers due to rising flood waters. The woman was happy to be rescued and will be staying at alternate accommodation this evening.

Ms Daly offered a timely reminder for people to stay well away from flood waters.

"Please, please don't drive through flood water because we do have a couple of crews here but we don't have so many people that we can get to everybody, so please don't drive through flood waters," she said.