It was supposed to be their wedding day, but now Sarah Soars and Joshua Edge will remember 20 March for all the wrong reasons.
The rented house of Sarah Soars and Joshua Edge "floated like a houseboat", its owner says. Photo: ABC
As floodwaters surged through swathes of New South Wales, the couple's rented home at Mondrook, near Taree on the Mid-North Coast, was swept from its foundations and down the Manning river.
Shocked neighbours filmed the three-bedroom cottage bobbing past paddocks as a murky brown torrent hauled it away.
Incredible, but devastating footage of a house floating down the Manning River at Taree.Tanya Cross #NSWfloods pic.twitter.com/KTggPpvlWO
— Claudia Jambor (@claudiajambor) March 20, 2021
The incident added an exclamation point to a day of wild weather in the state, where multiple areas, including parts of Greater Sydney, were evacuated.
The days-long deluge is expected to continue into next week and the Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) is warning another 100mm of rain could fall on the Mid-North Coast today.
Sarah Soars and Joshua Edge Photo: ABC
"I don't think it's really hit me that much yet … until I see my partner and we figure out where we are going," Soars told News Limited.
"Obviously he has got his mum and I've got my mum, and our other family around town, but from living just us two to living with someone, it's hard.
"But I am grateful that I even have somewhere to go."
An online fundraising page set up by Edge's brother, Lyle, surpassed its $A30,000 target within a few hours.
The couple remain separated by floodwaters - Joshua is in Tinonee and Sarah is in Taree.
The couple were renting the home from Peter Bowie and Tracia Milton, who are new to the area and had 180 cattle displaced in the wild weather.
"The people of Taree are just so good, they band together, they call you from everywhere to say 'we've found a cow here, we've found another calf here', they were in people's backyards," Bowie said.
"Even the groom and his father got a bull and three cows in Tinonee and put them in a pen in the primary school."
Milton described watching the house get swept away as "devastating" and said the couple were "crushed" when they found out what had happened.
"I've spoken to Josh several times today and he's doing the best he can," Milton said.
"Originally they were going to get banks in front of the house," Bowie said.
"We'd mowed it nicely so they had a walkway down to the banks [for their wedding day] but they called that off a couple of days ago because it was just getting wetter and wetter."
Bowie said he could not believe what he saw when the water surged through his property and picked up the home.
"It literally floated like a houseboat, the whole house, fully intact," he said.
"It went so fast. It went nearly a kilometre all intact, 100 percent. This house just lifted up and floated down the river."
Bracing for more
The torrential rain has caused major flooding in parts of eastern New South Wales, and the region is bracing for more over the next few days.
More than six million residents from the Mid-North Coast to the Illawarra could be affected by more heavy rain, flooding and powerful winds.
A rescue worker helps residents cross a flooded road during heavy rain in western Sydney amid mass evacuations caused by days of heavy rain. Photo: AFP
Hundreds of people have been rescued from floodwaters, major roads have been shut and residents of many low-lying communities have been ordered to leave their homes.
The search has resumed today for a bodyboarder who is still missing in the Coffs Harbour area.
The state's premier, Gladys Berejiklian, said it's not going to be an easy week. She urged people to listen to advice from authorities, saying "the window for evacuation is often not a big one, depending on where you live".
"I hate to say this again to all of our citizens of this state, but it's not going to be an easy week for us."
The State Emergency Service is ordering anyone in low-lying areas, including residents in parts of north-western-Sydney, to evacuate.
A spokesperson for the SES told the ABC they have received around 6000 calls since the wild weather began late last week.
Statewide a total of 640 calls for help were made overnight, with 66 of those being flood rescues.
Some residents in Sydney's west remained without electricity overnight after a mini-tornado hit Chester Hill.
At the height of the storm 1200 homes had been affected.
Residents from the neighbourhood watch the overflowing Parramatta river during heavy rain in Sydney. Photo: AFP
The police say hundreds of people have flocked to evacuation centres in areas north of Sydney.
Warragamba dam in Sydney, the city's main water source, began to overflow yesterday for the first time since 2016, and WaterNSW warns others are also expected to spill over.
Warragamba dam has started to spill. With heavy rainfall persisting, we are also expecting to see spills at Nepean, Cataract, Cordeaux and Avon dams.
— WaterNSW (@WaterNSW) March 20, 2021
For weather forecasts and flood warnings, visit https://t.co/2GW553xMtn
For emergency information, visit https://t.co/7v9ukIZgQB pic.twitter.com/eainGUuCaw
While the dam - which is about 70 kilometres from Sydney's CBD - also spilled over in 2012 and 2013, the last major flooding event was in 1990.
Rising flood waters also led to an evacuation order for Picton, about 40km upstream of the dam.
Warragamba dam is right at spilling point. Good luck to those downstream in Western Sydney. Here's the capacity of the dam over the past month: pic.twitter.com/yn3vtOny2u
— Michael Slezak (@MikeySlezak) March 20, 2021
Authorities are particularly worried about the situation in the nearby Hawkesbury-Nepean valley, which the NSW State Emergency Service (SES) says has one of Australia's highest flood-danger levels.
Up to 100mm of rain is forecast for Sydney, and as much as 300mm for the lower Blue Mountains, west of the city.
"We are in uncharted territory," water expert Ian Wright at Western Sydney University told outlet News.com.au, saying many more people live next to Warragamba dam than during previous flooding.
Photo: AFP
Agata Imielska from the Bureau of Meteorology warned of localised intense rainfall and damaging winds, saying the public should be aware of "dangerous conditions" that can change quite quickly.
The Bureau of Meteorology's Flood Operations manager Justin Robinson said authorities were watching the situation closely.
"It's a very dynamic and evolving flood situation and we could see some very deep and rapid responding rivers with very high levels," he said.
There will likely be an "explosion or rain and thunderstorms" on Monday and Tuesday as the coastal trough combines with another weather event coming from the tropical north, meteorologist Jonathan Howe said.
- ABC / BBC
