More surges headed to Hay
Major flooding continues at Hay, where the Murrumbidgee River has already exceeded the September 1974 flood level of 9.02m.
In Hay, where the river level is manually measured by Hay Council, the river reached 9.11m Wednesday afternoon and had already eased off to 9.085m by yesterday morning.
But with further surges predicted, the council says everyone must remain alert.
General manager David Webb said any surges that pass through Wagga usually make it to Hay about three weeks later.
A surge peak passed through Wagga last week, and another is expected in a few days.
“Council crews are continuing to monitor the levees in town, closing off flood gates and setting up pumps as needed,” the council said in a statement on Wednesday.
No time to evacuate
In Maude, a ‘shelter now’ warning was issued by the SES on Tuesday due to major flooding.
The alert said it was now too late to leave safely as evacuation routes were likely to be cut off.
“Seek shelter in a sturdy raised structure that can be safely accessed. You may now be trapped without power, water, and other essential services and it may be too dangerous for NSW SES to rescue you,” the SES said.
At the time of going to print yesterday, the Murrumbidgee downsteam of Maude was 7.57m having steadily increased by a few centimetres each day this week.
Exams impacted by floods
Moama Anglican Grammar School’s Year 12 students recently lived through an experience like no other.
The flood crisis that engulfed Echuca and Moama impacted greatly on the senior cohort, resulting in the cancellation of the second and third weeks of HSC exams.
“It was really quite a unique situation because we are the only school who, in the whole of NSW, were impacted by the flooding during the HSC exams,” head of teaching and learning Hayley Catt said.
Mrs Catt worked closely with the NSW Education Standards Authority (NESA) to provide students with misadventure applications to limit the impact the floods would have on their overall results.
Brumby mission
Parks Victoria is moving to supply fodder to stranded brumbies in the Barmah National Park after the situation was highlighted by the Barmah Brumby Preservation Group.
The group had been supplying donated feed to the brumbies by boat and air drop after they were marooned on islands in the forest due to flooding from the Murray River. Up to 120 were on one sandhill.
Last week, the preservation group warned the brumbies were in danger of starving in the flooded forest and the flood management organisation, the Incident Control Centre, directed Parks Victoria to provide fodder for the horses.