UPDATE: Wagga now on track for a major flood peak of 9.80 metres with North Wagga residents urged to leave early

UPDATED 2:30 pm – The Bureau of Meteorology is now warning that Wagga is in line for major flooding beyond the expected 9.60 metres with SES incident controller Ben Pickup confirming that they are now preparing for the Murrumbidgee to peak at around 9.80 metres on Friday.

North Wagga and Gumly Gumly residents have now been told to leave by 6:30 pm and the Big 4 Caravan Park off Hammond Avenue is also under an evacuation order.

“With the evacuation orders that we do have in place, the community is again encouraged, please do not delay evacuation. Leave early. It is the safest option,” he said.

“Once the river passes 9.6 we will lose access to the North Wagga community inside the levee and we need people to be out before that occurs.

“At 9.8 we will not see the North Wagga levee around the township itself overtop, but we don’t want people in that community once we lose access.”

At 2 pm on Thursday, the river at Wagga had reached 9.48 metres.

Mr Pickup said communities should not be lulled into a false sense of security by the sunny weather.

“Blue Sky flooding is just as dangerous as when the rain is falling and we have that flash flooding,” he warned.

“Please do not walk, ride or drive through floodwaters because it is dangerous.”

NSW Minister for Emergency services Steph Cooke said she was frustrated that people were not getting the message.

“We continue to respond to flood rescues, night and day at present and that’s disappointing in a lot of ways because we’ve been putting this messaging out now for months,” she said.

Federal member for the Riverina Michael McCormack echoed the warning.

“If it’s flooded, forget it! Don’t drive through those flooded roadways even if you know the road,” he urged.

“There are so many potholes about it could jeopardise your life and it could jeopardise a person sent to save you.”

There was also a reminder that the water may take some time to recede.

“We’re likely to see isolation of main areas for four to five days and very slow moving flood peaks.” said Mr Pickup.

You can stay up to date with the latest alerts on the Hazard Watch page here, the Murrumbidgee SES Facebook page here, and you can keep an eye on the river heights here.

For emergency help in floods and storms, call the NSW SES on 132 500.

In life-threatening situations, call triple zero (000) immediately.

8:00 am – The Murrumbidgee River continues to rise towards a major flood level at Wagga, but the Bureau of Meteorology amended the timeline on Wednesday night, with the peak now expected on Friday afternoon.

Spills from the Burrinjuck Dam combined with inflows from the Tumut River and other tributaries caused major flooding at Gundagai, where the river peaked overnight at 9.77, slightly lower than the 9.80 that had been predicted.

SES incident controller Ben Pickup said they had revised evacuation orders for parts of Wagga to give residents more time to evacuate.

“Following those conversations with the Bureau of Meteorology, I’m going to extend the timeframe for the evacuation order that’s in place for North Wagga inside the levee and Gumly Gumly to be out, evacuated by 8 am Friday,” he said.

“The reason behind the decision to evacuate has to do with access to the North Wagga community.

“At 9.6 we lose vehicle access into the community and to ensure the safety and get people out of harm’s way, and given how dynamic the situation is, the decision was made to go from an evacuation warning to an evacuation order for inside the levee.”

The Wiradjuri Bridge was closed to general traffic overnight with only local residents and emergency vehicles permitted to come and go.

While they expect the road into North Wagga to be cut, the SES does not expect the water to exceed the levee at North Wagga.

Edward Street West, Moorong East and Flowerdale remain under Prepare to Isolate warnings while Oura could be cut off from Wagga but will maintain access to Junee.

Around 700 people will need to be evacuated across Wagga by the Friday morning deadline and Riverina police will increase patrols to protect properties from potential looters.

Mr Pickup warned that the situation remained dynamic with widespread flooding and large volumes of water on the ground making it difficult to anticipate how quickly the river would rise and recede.

“It may move a little bit quicker given we’ve now got flood layers layered on top of each other from the previous events,” he explained.

“We had really high inflows from the creeks and tributaries into the Murrumbidgee with that localised rainfall that we had earlier in the week.”

Moderate flooding continues at Narrandera, with major flooding possible early next week.

Moderate flooding is likely at Darlington Point from Saturday with further rises into next week.

Further downstream, major flooding continues at Hay.

You can stay up to date with the latest alerts on the Hazard Watch page here, the Murrumbidgee SES Facebook page here, and you can keep an eye on the river heights here.

For emergency help in floods and storms, call the NSW SES on 132 500.

In life-threatening situations, call triple zero (000) immediately.