A 25-year-old man dialled triple zero when he became trapped in flood waters and stayed on the phone to emergency services for almost 40 minutes, with NSW police suggesting his hire car’s electrical system may have failed, preventing him from escaping.
NSW police said emergency services had been called to Cattai Ridge Road in Glenorie after 6am on Wednesday to reports of a car in trouble. When they arrived the vehicle was not visible so authorities began searching Cattai Creek.
Seven hours later they found the car with a man’s body inside.
NSW police said the Glenorie victim was a 25-year-old Pakistani national from western Sydney on his first day in a new job as a contractor with “a large commercial organisation”.
The car was six metres underwater when it was found, with signs and floodgates on the road also underwater.
“The actual gate blocking the road was underwater by 10 metres,” Det Insp Chris Laird said.
“Given the unprecedented water levels, the gates could not be seen from the roadway at all. What has happened is a complete tragedy. [The man] does have ties within the community around western Sydney.”
The man had called triple zero at 6.25am and had stayed on the line for a while but police say they lost contact with him at 7.04am.
“The triple zero operator did continue to maintain contact with the 25-year-old male as he was in the car. However, at 7.04am, it’s believed contact was lost with the male. Police arrived on the scene shortly after and were unable to find the car.”
Police said the man was driving a new car – a Toyota Camry – and it was unclear why he could not escape in time.
Laird suggested the car’s electrical system may have failed.
“We can only speculate as to why he couldn’t get out of the car and initial examination shows he made all reasonable attempts,” he told reporters.
“It was a brand-new car and some of those examinations will form part of the coronial investigation, as well as whether the closures of the road were made properly visible at the time of the incident.
“You can only just imagine somebody fighting for their life to get out of a car. That’s what the inside damage to the car looked like … there were no broken windows. He clearly couldn’t get out.”
“Also too, the remote location of the area, (we’ll ask) questions about what he was doing up there … he may not have known the area as locals would.”
Det Insp Laird said the 25-year-old had strong roots in western Sydney, and that his friends in Australia were devastated by the news.
“From the police force, all emergency services … here is the very reason why you should not make any attempt to drive through swollen rivers,” he said.
The prime minister, Scott Morrison, said it was “horrible news”, telling parliament: “This is a terribly sad day for his family.”
NSW premier Gladys Berejiklian expressed her condolences to the man’s family.
Earlier on Wednesday, Berejiklian, had said it was “simply a miracle” that no one had died in the floods to date.
Two people have now died as a result of this week’s “catastrophic” weather event. A 38-year-old man, who had been reported missing on Monday, was found in an upturned car in flood waters in the Gold Coast hinterland.
Police on the Gold Coast said they had been scouring the region after receiving reports of a missing man on Monday. They had conducted “extensive patrols” of waterways and cliffs.
David Hornman’s body was found by a member of the public in an upturned car in Canungra Creek near Lamington National Park Road on Wednesday morning.
“As a result of that information, swift water rescue, Gold Coast water police and the police dive squad have attended, recovered a vehicle and, unfortunately, located a male deceased in that vehicle,” Snr Sgt Mitchell Gray said.
Authorities are unsure exactly what happened and forensic crash units are beginning their investigation.
“The time he’s gone missing … was in a terrible weather period for the Gold Coast and certainly we were experiencing flash flooding in the area,” Gray said. “That will form part of our investigation to what’s caused this incident.”
Police appealed to the public for any dashboard camera footage or CCTV footage from the area.
Emergency services across Australia have been urging people never to drive through flood water. The Queensland transport department published a video of a car being taken by flood waters near Springbrook on the Queensland-NSW border as a warning. The driver of that car was safely rescued.
You need to see this. And believe it. pic.twitter.com/sYyW4zU008
— Transport and Main Roads Queensland (@TMRQld) March 22, 2021
The NSW State Emergency Service has received more than 11,000 calls for assistance during the floods, including 976 rescues.
It rescued a total of 62 people on Wednesday and a total of 994 since the weather event began. More than 1,600 rescue teams have been activated across the state and more than 1,500 volunteers are currently in the field.
Queensland recorded 1,405 requests for assistance between Sunday and Wednesday morning, the vast majority coming from the Brisbane, Gold Coast and Sunshine Coast regions. SES crews there have assisted in five flood rescues.
While there is still a significant danger of further flooding in both states, it appears the worst of the rain has passed.
Jake Phillips, a senior forecaster at the Bureau of Meteorology, said overall NSW was looking at a relatively dry Thursday and Friday, with only a smattering of isolated showers across the state.
“Overall, we’re not expecting any heavy falls,” he said. “That isn’t really going to make the flood waters drain out any faster but it will help with the cleanup operations.”
Phillips said most of the hardest hit regions had already seen their flood waters peak, although there were some areas that could still see increased levels overnight.
“In a lot of areas, the peak has already occurred or is occurring today, but there are still a few that are waiting for their peak, maybe overnight or possibly even tomorrow. But after that, just about everywhere should be on the way down.”
Nineteen evacuation orders are currently in place and 21 evacuation warnings, covering a total of about 86,000 people in NSW.
Meanwhile, the town of Mallacoota, in far eastern Victoria, is taking a battering. Just over a year after black summer bushfires ripped through East Gippsland, more than 1,000 residents have been left without power as the area was inundated with 100mm of rain and hit with strong winds.
A low-pressure system is moving south from NSW, prompting the Bureau of Meteorology to issue severe weather warnings for coastal areas in Gippsland and the Otways.
According to the Ausnet website, 1,067 residents in Mallacoota were affected by a downed power line. The Otway coast, west of Melbourne, was forecast to have heavy rainfall on Wednesday and there were also flood watches for central Victoria, west Gippsland and the Snowy River region.
But overall, conditions were improving as the low-pressure system moved to the south-east.
“The rain is continuing, it has eased through East Gippsland and I don’t think we’re going to see much more out there,” a senior forecaster, Keris Arndt, said. “Through central parts … we’re likely to see a little bit more but everything is easing off generally.”
The recovery effort across Australia is likely to stretch past Easter as flood waters continue to flow downstream.
About 24,000 people have been evacuated from their homes, including some 400 residents of Moree in northern NSW, where the Mehi River was set to peak on Wednesday night.
The Moree plains mayor, Katrina Humphries, described the atmosphere as being like “waiting for a baby”.
“A very big baby,” she said. “People are potentially going to have damage to their homes, their livestock, and that’s the great unknown with this. There’s no stopping it. There’s a lot of sandbagging and things going on. We’re doing the very best that we can.
“The loss of life is the number one thing we fear,” Humphries said. “But having two or three meters of water for us is no fun. Moving livestock as well; the mess and the smell, the spiders, centipedes and snakes that come looking for high ground.”
But Humphries said there could be silver lining. “The good thing is that we’ve had this horrible mouse plague and that’s gonna fix it,” she said. “The mice have been absolutely horrific.”
A number of major, moderate and minor flood warnings remain in place across NSW, with other areas of concern including the Upper Hunter around Singleton, Grafton, parts of the Central Coast and the Hawkesbury-Nepean catchment north-west of Sydney.
The Bureau of Meteorology predicts there will be no major rain for at least a week, paving the way for the army and emergency service workers to get essential supplies to isolated communities, particularly in North Richmond on Sydney’s fringe, where flood waters continue to rise.
The clean-up effort will be coordinated by the state’s deputy premier, John Barilaro, with the SES, the Rural Fire Service, the Australian defence force and Resilience NSW.
Berejiklian said she was grateful for the reprieve from the record-breaking rainfall that plunged the state into its fourth crisis in as many years, after drought, bushfires and the Covid pandemic. But she noted this was not the time to be complacent.
“The currents are strong, the rivers are rising … life won’t be normal for a lot of people for a long time,” the premier said. “I’m not going to pretend that the clean-up and recovery will be easy.”
While the floods have brought destruction and suffering to many, in some regions the rain provided relief to drought-stricken communities.
The Southern Downs mayor, Vic Pennisi, said the rain over the past few days had been a godsend for the rural Queensland town of Stanthorpe, which had been trucking in water for the past year.
“I’ve never experienced winning the Lotto, but now I know what it feels like,” he said.
“We saw the water go down, down, down. Water restrictions, you know, trying to save every drop, getting to a point where it’s getting crucial … finally we’ve got to the point where it’s rain and urban water supplies are at full capacity. You know that’s like winning the Lotto.”
Rivers previously almost dry were now breaking their banks and dams were overflowing.
Stanthorpe residents say they’re “deliriously happy”.
— Elly Bradfield (@ellybradfield) March 23, 2021
After 15 months of daily water carting Storm King Dam has reached 100 percent capacity.
Mayor Vic Pennisi says everyone can now breathe a sigh of relief.
📸: Luke Logan @abcbrisbane pic.twitter.com/0RXFEJMIXW
“To stand on the dam wall this morning and see all that water running over is good,” Pennisi said. “There was no better moment since being mayor … except for when my grandchildren were born.”
The region is responsible for much of the state’s vegetable production and Pennisi said the rain would allow farmers to increase their crops.
“Twelve months ago they were in a terrible situation … I’d be surprised if most growers won’t get the full capacity now, and generally full capacity gives them a three-year working window.”
What a sight 😍 Storm King Dam spilling after years of heartbreaking drought - @GeorgieHewson81 has just been talking to #Stanthorpe locals who are coming down for a look, simply overjoyed! 🥲💙 details #WINNews6pm #Floods2021 pic.twitter.com/bNa8WeDaX9
— Caitlin Crowley (@Cait_Crowley) March 24, 2021
With dams now full, some towns in the region may be at risk of flooding, but the mayor said the community would come together to mitigate the damage and support anyone impacted.
with Australian Associated Press
