Residents in the western Riverina can expect to be cut off from the world for weeks after floodwaters isolated their rural community.
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The village of Maude, 50 kilometres west of Hay, was cut off by rising floodwaters earlier this week with the State Emergency Services issuing a warning for residents to shelter immediately on Tuesday afternoon due to the risk that evacuation routes were likely cut off.
The river at the town of about 80 people has continued to rise in the last few days and sat at 7.78 metres by 11.17am on Friday.
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Publican at the Maude Hotel Wayne Moore said the mood is 'normal' around town with the river expected to peak in a few days time.
"Things are pretty good at the moment. I think we've got things pretty well under control," Mr Moore said.
"A lot of sandbags have been put on with another lot done on Friday morning.
"The river is slowly rising, but by the way it's rising I think we will be okay."
Mr Moore said most in the village would not have seen flood levels as bad as this.
"There's probably one or two that have," he said.
"People around here reckon it's probably about the same as the 1974 flood."
While the town has been isolated, Mr Moore said people are still able to travel in and out with certain vehicles.
"It depends on what you're driving.
"There's quite a lot of water over the road between Maude and Hay.
"It's pretty slow going and you'd have to travel during the day because you'd have no idea where you're going at night."
The Sturt Highway remains shut between Maude and Hay.
"The authorities aren't letting any traffic through there at all," he said.
With the town cut off from the world, Mr Moore said business is understandably down.
"Most of our trade is from out of town and the farms," he said.
"On Thursday we would have had about six customers across the day."
The floodwaters have also brought some unusual sights to town with the water attracting ducks, ibis and even seagulls.
Looking ahead, Mr Moore remains sceptical about when the inland sea engulfing the shire will recede.
"We'll have to see what happens at the end of next week," he said.
"Once the river starts dropping, it will be okay again."
But he was not too optimistic.
"We don't know what's happening upstairs," Mr Moore said.
"We're expecting more rain tomorrow and Sunday."
Meanwhile, fellow Maude residents Mark and Michelle Schiller are also dealing with tough conditions with more than two thirds of their 35,000 acre farm underwater.
"We can still get into town, although there's about three quarters of a kilometre of water into Maude and about 3 kilometres of water heading into Hay.
The couple run dorper sheep on the property and were caught out when the floodwaters rolled through, leaving up to 700 sheep stranded on an island.
"We tried to muster them with a helicopter and push them through the water the other day with no success," Mr Schiller said.
"We then went out with some bikes and dogs and although we got one mob out, the other mob baulked in the water and it was going to get very messy, so we pulled the pin on it."
Fortunately they have another 3000-odd sheep on higher ground and hope to transport the remainder off the island fairly soon.
"They will run out feed at some point and it's just hard to know how long the water will be up for," Mr Schiller said.
With the wet conditions, a major concern has been to control flies, mosquitoes and other health issues.
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