Search continues for missing man swept away by floodwaters in northern NSW

ABC NEWS (Australia)

Authorities in northern New South Wales are searching for a man who was swept away by flood waters in Dorrigo.

Transcript

00:00He was in his four-wheel drive truck crossing a bridge up near the Orara River, up sort

00:10of that, that sort of general direction up that way when the floodwaters swept his vehicle

00:16into the water and he was then able to get out of that vehicle, climb a tree and contact

00:21emergency services but emergency alert services were probably on the phone for him for a little

00:27over an hour before they lost contact with him and he was swept away under the waters.

00:32Today at this press conference we found out that it is a man who is 61 years old and he

00:39is a local in the area.

00:41Police are also in communication with his family as the search is being hampered by

00:48the weather conditions.

00:50Police have been unable in search and rescue, have been unable to get any helicopters airborne

00:56due to the weather conditions, it's just too windy for them to safely get their aircraft

01:01into the air to help search with those efforts and officers and search crews on the grounds

01:06are really struggling to get to the point of interest where they need to go because

01:11a lot of those access routes are just cut off, there's too much flooding in that area,

01:17the river levels have been slowly and steadily rising after what has been days of rain and

01:23so the weather overall is just dampening any attempts to try and locate this man and his

01:30vehicle.

01:31Speaking at the press conference, police couldn't give much more detail than what I've just

01:37been able to relay to you now, here's a little bit of what the New South Wales police had

01:44to say.

01:45There's a significant weather event going on which is impacting the ability to get air

01:50assets and indeed swift water rescue into there.

01:53The area and the township is accessed via Dorrigo which is proving difficult to access

02:00up Waterfall Way.

02:01We are using local members of the police that are based up there and other emergency services

02:07to assist and access some of the areas.

02:10As you can understand, there's flooding in the area, there's rapidly moving water that

02:14leads to the waterfall areas that we all know are around that area that are causing difficulties

02:19for police and SES workers.

02:23I'm here in Coffs Harbour and the weather has certainly eased as the day goes on.

02:28This morning it was quite windy, quite very windy, we had sort of sideways rain pelting

02:33us as we were bringing news reports but now it's stopped raining, there's still a little

02:37bit of wind but that still doesn't mean things are over.

02:43Rain levels are still, well the rain is still falling which is causing the rivers to rise

02:50further inland near Orara.

02:52I spoke with the SES, the State Emergency Service Command Unit down in Nambucca and

02:59they said that in the low lying areas there, they are seeing some light flooding and river

03:05level increases there as well.

03:07So as the day goes on and the rain continues to fall, we will certainly start to see probably

03:13some more flash flooding in areas of concern, more inland in those low lying areas because

03:18three years ago in 2022 those inland areas are all too familiar with the significant

03:23flooding of back then and now, luckily they've been prepared enough to make sure they're

03:27well ready for this time round.

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