THE devastation of a suburb submerged could be seen yesterday as the wreckage that is North Wagga lay sprawled along pathways, in paddocks and around homes.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Water was pumped out of inundated areas and from what was once a swamp of murky water emerged foundations of establishments and homes – their walls and insides coated in slime and sludge.
A sign of just how bad it got marks the wall of the Palm and Pawn Hotel.
A chalk line with 2012 sits two metres above the ground on its wall and 10cm below there is a marking which shows how high the water reached in 1974.
But through the work of Rural Fire Service (RFS), NSW Fire and Rescue, State Emergency Service (SES) and Wagga City Council the return should be less daunting for residents than it is now.
Near George and Dunn streets houses in water reached a metre in height, but RFS relief crew member Wayne Sanbrook said earlier it had come up to his nose.
“The houses are in pretty bad shape,” he said, adding he had seen a dead fox lying on a power box almost three metres off the ground.
“He would of been swimming and swimming and got on top of the power box then died of exhaustion.”
Sitting on the fence outside his home in North Wagga was Glen McFarland – one of the eight people that stayed to witness water levels which rose above his head.
When asked how he was going he answered “good”, but during his week in isolation he was involved in a dangerous encounter with a four-foot black snake in his father’s shed.
RFS relief crew member Jason Lewington said the scenes had been pretty bad as he worked with a large crew pumping water out of Oura Road.
“It’s a bit like the Victoria bushfires – it’s really quiet and everyone is out of the area,” he said.
“But it’s just what we do.”
At the low-lying Wagga Bidgee Pony Club only a skeleton of the building remains and the bricks and furniture strewn across the paddock show the sheer force of the water that had passed through.
Although many residents are becoming restless there are still no dates for them to return, according to council.
They have said that road closures are still in place and have asked people to stay clear to to allow the clean up to be completed.
