In the early hours before a devastating flood swept through a rural community, emergency services, concerned about the insufficient warnings from the weather bureau, took swift action to issue evacuation orders.

This catastrophic event, which survivors likened to an “inland tsunami,” nearly obliterated the village of Eugowra, located in central-western New South Wales. The disaster, occurring on the morning of November 14, 2022, tragically claimed the lives of two local residents, Diane Smith, 60, and Ljubisa “Les” Vugec, 85.

A five-day inquest is currently underway, delving into the details surrounding these fatalities. The investigation is also focused on the sequence of events leading up to the flood, the weather alerts issued, and the overall scale of the emergency response.

Brigid Rice, a commander with the NSW State Emergency Service, was alerted by colleagues before 3 a.m. that morning. She faced the daunting task of assessing the situation as a rising river threatened Bathurst, while floods were already inundating the villages of Molong and Canowindra.

“There was a lot for me to be taking in,” Rice recounted during her testimony at the inquest held at Orange courthouse on Wednesday.

At the same time, Rice was keeping an eye on data from gauges at Toogong and Smithfield, upstream from Eugowra, alarmed that water rises were “almost vertical”.

“It was rising very quickly,” she said.

At 3.49am, the Bureau of Meteorology issued a flood warning for Mandagery Creek at Eugowra, saying it was likely to reach a major flood level of nine metres.

But having seen water levels of 8m at the upstream gauges, Rice knew from previous floods that 9.5m would be merely a “starting point” at Eugowra.

She said she felt the bureau’s warnings were “inadequate” given the volume and velocity of water in brimming catchments after a night of heavy rainfall.

“I was of the firm view the nine-metre warning from the bureau would not be sufficient,” she told the inquest.

The SES began preparing for a 10.5m flood, higher than the previous 1950 record that inundated 215 houses.

Knowing floodwaters generally took 12 hours to get from Toogong to Eugowra, Rice began preparing evacuation zone maps and emergency messaging.

At 6.12am a geo-targeted text message went out to Eugowra locals, telling people in low-lying areas to evacuate immediately.

The inquest has previously been told that the eastern side of Eugowra was generally considered “safe”, based on previous floods, while the western side historically copped the brunt of floods.

Several witnesses have described people moving to a bridge in the centre of town, or to the eastern side in preparation for the flood, including Smith.

But after 9am, a sudden and destructive “wall of water” swept through much of the town damaging or destroying a majority of houses – including on the eastern side – and sparking more than 100 helicopter rescues.

Rice agreed that the SES evacuation message put the onus on Eugowra locals to self-identify as being in a low-lying area.

Since the flood, the western zone has changed the wording of its messages ensuring they are relevant to individual communities.

“In some towns heights are really meaningful, other towns years are really meaningful, in other towns gauges are very meaningful,” Rice said.

The inquest continues before Deputy State Coroner David O’Neil.