A caravan park in the New South of Wales town of Tumbarumba has been flooded after wild weather lashed the area.
Pictures released by the State Emergency Services show inflatable boats travelling through the park after the local creek – which is part of the Murray catchment within the Murray Darling basin – swelled dramatically.
The Snowy Valleys Council had been moving people out of the caravan park since the beginning of the week because of the forecast heavy rain.
Elsewhere in the town, a man aged in his 70s had to be rescued from a house as the water levels rose.
“We have had one house which required a flood rescue, so we had to … get them through the water,” NSW State Emergency Service spokesman Ian Leckie said. “There has been significant flooding around the sports field, caravan park and around Hampton Avenue … water has got into the sewer mains, which means drinking water is contaminated.”
Water levels are now dropping back and expected to move downstream into the Tooma River and Upper Murray. Water, power and mobile coverage have been restored to the town.
Extra NSW SES Teams from Albury, Wagga Wagga and The Rock are arriving in Tumbarumba to assess damage.
The Tumbarumba Caravan Park has been run by Snowy Valleys Council since July, after the previous lease for its operation expired, and it recently returned an operating profit for 2019-20.
Occupancy at the park has been high during the bushfire cleanup and Covid-19 operations, with a number of cleanup contractors staying at the park, along with police officers tasked to the NSW-Vic border closure relating to Covid-19.
At a recent council meeting, Executive Director of Community and Corporate Paul Holton, said income projections for the future of the park were “looking very positive”.
