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Evacuation warnings have been issued for parts of Forbes, Wagga Wagga and Gunnedah, while existing orders remain in place in other parts of the state, including the Murray River community of Moama.
“In relation to Forbes, we are anticipating record floods to move through that community,” she said.
“There are evacuation orders in place impacting 500-600 people, and their evacuation order is to take effect at 4pm today.”
The State Emergency Service said the Lachlan River near Forbes would reach a level comparable to the town’s devastating June 1952 floods.
“We are going to see the predicted record flooding in Forbes,” SES Southern Zone Commander Ben Pickup said.
“The Lachlan River at Forbes is expected to reach 10.55m early this afternoon and then reach a peak level of 10.8m overnight Friday, early Saturday morning.”
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Cooke also warned residents to not be lulled into a false sense of security by clear skies.
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”Whilst we are starting to see blue skies emerge, which is very pleasing, and we will see easing weather conditions over the next few days, the flooding risk is very, very high at the moment,” Cooke said.
“Many of our river systems are in significant flood, particularly the Lachlan, the Murrumbidgee and the Murray.”
Cooke also encouraged people to evacuate well in advance of deadlines coming into effect.
”Please don’t leave it until the last minute to evacuate,” she said.
“We do put those timelines on the evacuation but we would like you to move sooner rather than later such is the risk that we believe is presented to your community.”
Meanwhile, south of the Murray, communities in Victoria are still being impacted by the weeks-long natural disaster.
Vic Emergency has told residents in Echuca it is still unsafe to return to homes due to major flooding in the area, while floodwaters are still present in several areas, including near Kerang, Rochester and Rocky Point.
