Eugowra has been left decimated by Monday's horrific flooding, with much of the NSW Central West town completely gutted by the ferocity and the volume of water that flowed down the Mandagery Creek.
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ACM photographer Carla Freedman travelled over to Eugowra on Wednesday and captured these photos of both the heartache suffered, as well as the absolute good in people who are already rolling their sleeves up to begin the clean-up.
Cabonne Shire mayor Kevin Beatty on Tuesday said the aftermath of the flood looked more like a bomb had gone off in the centre of town.
Experienced Rural Fire Service volunteers charged with some of the harrowing rescues said the scenarios faced while winching people to safety were akin to the worst-case scenario training they regularly complete.
Put simply, Eugowra's flood was like none of the others many emergency services people have ever seen.
RFS volunteer Paul Bryant has been involved with helicopter rescues for eight years. He says there's one aspect of the Eugowra disaster that stands out for him.
The rising flood waters were almost like rapids, and that ferocity was something no one was prepared for.
"Talking to one of the locals, we got a family out and ferried them to Orange, and they said the water came up more than six feet in less than an hour," Mr Bryant said.
"Talking to some of the crews, it was fast-flowing water. Everything we saw was similar to Lismore. But more the ferocity here, and how fast it all happened."
Given how quick everything unravelled, the sheer volume of work in such a short amount of time many helicopter crews completed is simply remarkable.
The RFS completed a mammoth 67 flood rescues in Eugowra throughout the devastating floods in the Cabonne Shire on Monday, November 14. Those rescues were executed in the period of less than 24 hours.
For context, during the northern NSW floods in the Lismore area, RFS helicopters completed a total of 75 rescues over a two month period.
"It was confronting, to be honest, in terms of what we saw," Mr Bryant said.
"There was a lot of damage. We saw multiple issues."
Crews put straight to work
Mr Bryant, part of team Helitak 204, was on board one of the six RFS helicopters working in the Eugowra area above the Mandagery Creek.
He said his team arrived quite late to the scene, but it didn't take long for the crew to go "straight into rescue mode".
Mr Bryant, a school teacher from the Hawkesbury region, said it's crucial to set up a command structure in these rescue situations and they were able to do that at the Eugowra Showground.
NSW Police and SES personnel formed part of that assembly point on the ground, alongside some locals eager to do what they could, and Mr Bryant said throughout the whole mission the ground crews - both official and regular Eugowra residents - were exceptional.
He said at that point, there were around eight helicopters in Eugowra, from multiple agencies.
His task? Find people that needed to be saved. They didn't have to look far.
"We came across 10 people stuck on a roof near the Central Hotel," Mr Bryant said, the historic pub located in the middle of town.
"There were a couple of dogs as well. Our whole task was extracting those people. You can only get a certain amount of people at a time before taking them to safety."
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Mr Bryant was on the winch, so he went up and down the wire and helped lift people to safety.
"They'd been on the roof quite a long time," he said.
Mr Bryant said a lot of the rescues were difficult to manage. Steep roofs, and working through three to five minutes per person has its challenges. Two to three people could fit in the chopper after being saved, then it's back to the showground to the assembly point to unload. Then the process starts again.
And some of the rescues were incredible.
"We had a few people pulled out of trees in flood waters. In particular one mother and a baby were pulled out of a tree. It was a very full-on rescue. Getting in through the canopy and the dealing with that situation ... we do a lot of training and it's for situations like this," he said.
"Another guy was rescued off a window sill as the the water was coming up. We had people taken out of buildings via forcible entry; one of the winch crews had to force their way in because people were stuck."
The choppers would then refuel in Parkes or in Orange.
One of the RFS aircrews completed 22 rescues on their own.
Harrowing experience ... and it's not over
Mr Bryant said the chat among most of the crews working throughout Monday was the Eugowra floodwaters were extremely fast flowing.
He said it was remarkable the bulk of the people they were able to save managed to get themselves into decent positions to make the rescues more streamline.
He said the crews have been busy for months now, continuously rolling across the state as the flood crisis worsens in NSW.
Mr Bryant's not anticipating that routine to change any time soon either.
"If we have another 100mm out here communities will be trapped. Until La Nina is over we'll be busy over Christmas," he said.
He said the multi-agency response to the Eugowra situation on Monday is worth commending.
"It was an amazing effort in a short period of time. Everyone was so very thankful. And considering the situation, it was very well handled. Ground crews, police, everyone," he said.
"The recovery from that will be long term.
"The guys at the showground and school locals that were down there helping out, those guys were legends. They came and saw what we needed and it was nice to be able to hand people over to someone they knew.
"Personally, for me, my thoughts go out to everyone involved. The bottom line is, you hope everyone is ok."
Carla Freedman
Nick McGrath
Editor, Central Western Daily
Editor, Central Western Daily
