'On the roof of their car': City's SES experts look at region's rainfall, recent flood rescues and at-capacity dams

The city's State Emergency Services' deputy zone commander, that's Josh Clark's key message for residents on Friday, as rainfall continues to build across the region.

For those thinking of battling through floodwaters, Mr Clark urges people to pause before putting those plans into action.

Which is pretty timely advice, considering the volume of flood-related call-outs from one week prior.

"We had a total of 15 flood rescues across that 48 hour period, during that Thursday and Friday last week, and that seems to be the standard - from Warren to Bathurst and up near Coolangatta, Wellington, Mudgee, Dubbo and Dunedo," Mr Clark said.

"So, from an operational perspective with the SES, we've had to move a couple of additional resources into the region around flood rescue capacity and capability.

"We've brought in a couple of extra crews, because of that number of requests for assistance, which were all related to flood rescue."

While surfing is a pretty gnarly activity for those living on the coast, finding people atop their vehicles while floating down the country stream isn't as cool.

That's the reality though, Mr Clark said, who clarified the meaning of 'floodwaters', while also likening the level of potential danger to similar precautions around fires.

"Unfortunately, if people don't abide by the road closed signs and they make an unsafe decision, the emergency services have to be prepared to go and rescue those people," he said.

"Sometimes there might be a bit of confusion when we say 'don't enter floodwaters' and people might think 'okay, well that's a river' - but floodwaters means any form of water that's going across a causeway, paddocks, or that's broken its banks.

"I try to draw the conclusion to it being like a fire, as an example; you see a bushfire, you can smell it, you can feel the heat and you go 'oh, that's dangerous - I wont go near that.

"But so many people look at flooding and think 'oh, it's just water, it's okay' ... suddenly, you're in fast-moving water, you can't see the bottom, you don't want to get out - and then they're sitting on the roof of their car thinking 'okay, I really shouldn't have driven through this'.

"You wouldn't drive through a bushfire, so don't drive through a flood."

Over the next 24 to 48 hours, Mr Clark said the concern around the continuous rainfall is that while there won't be "great totals" of it, crews are looking at showers around the 15 to 20mm mark for Friday and Saturday, August 12 and 13.

"Generally, that wouldn't cause us too much concern, but with the recent events that have occurred just six days ago, the catchments - rivers, creeks and streams - are going to react very quickly to any additional rainfall that we get," he said.

"We'll see the creeks and rivers rise, as well. In our area specifically, Burrendong Dam, Chifley Dam, Carcoar Dam - the dams are all at 100 per cent, they're at full capacity. Just today, Burrendong Dam is sitting at the 126 per cent mark already."

The storage capacity to hold water is vastly reduced, so, put simply, any water that enters the region's dams is going to spill over.

Any water that falls outside of the water catchment areas, will also create increased flows to the rivers and streams - some of the main reasons behind flash-flooding events and fast-rising rivers.

"They're the concerns, which again, we only just saw recently," Mr Clark said.

"Thankfully, at this stage, we're not likely to see any damaging, strong winds with this event, but again - nothing can be ruled out.

"And because everyone is getting sick of seeing this rain, the terrain and the ground is so saturated - so, any winds that do get associated with any storm we have, will be likely to cause trees to topple over along with other [unfavourable] situations."

Via the Bureau of Meteorology, in the last 24 hours to about 2pm on Friday, the Orange Airport had received over 10mm of rain.

While it's not exactly a cause for concern giving "great reason" to arm-flapping panic, Orange City SES' unit commander, Rob Stevens said current conditions do still provide a realistic level for potential dramas.

"In mid-drought or in drier times, a rain event of 20 to 40mm in the space of a 24-hour period, would barley even rate a blip on a radar,' Mr Stevens said.

"But with all of the rain that we've been having lately, everything's wet, everything's absolutely soaked. So, any rain event - even small amounts of top of that - can be problematic."

SES crew members said they also understand peoples' frustrations; that they really do "get it."

It's an inconvenience, detouring can add significant time to trips, you're almost home, you can basically see your house on the other side, you're in a hurry - a whole gamut of "we get it" reasons were listed.

This essentially brings the issue back to personal responsibility - taking precaution, literally not testing the waters and avoiding situations.

Potentially, you're looking at a pretty uncool version of surfing otherwise.

"We have seen a number of people that have gone across a low-level crossing which has got water over it, and they don't judge the depth of the water or expect that and they drive through it," Mr Clark said.

"And they'll think that speed is a benefit, so they plough through that water and it runs up into their motor, cuts the motor out and then they're stuck in the middle of the causeway with the water rising - that's what occurs.

"If you were to interview every person who has been rescued for a flood rescue, they'll say something along the lines 'I knew I shouldn't have done it'. It's a bit like when you open up the mail and you've got a speeding ticket and you're like, 'yep alright - they got me that time'.

"Unfortunately though, the real concern is that you are potentially putting the life of the people in your vehicle, your own life and those of the rescuers, all at risk."

So, if you're not game enough to drive through a blazing bushfire, it stands to reason that it's best not to drive through floodwaters either.

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