Weather News

Man rescued in Hunter Valley waters

A man has been rescued from the roof of his car after the vehicle was washed off a causeway at Rothbury, in the Hunter Valley.

The man was clinging to a tree when the volunteer rescue association reached him at around 4am today.

He had called police for assistance but officers were unable to reach him due to flood waters.

The man was not injured.

Gloucester Council, meanwhile, is still counting the cost of its flood cleanup.

Director of Technical Services Gil Gendron says it is around $750,000.

"It's actually spread around the entire shire and it relates mainly to washed out bridge approaches and pavement damage adjacent to a number of our bridges," he said.

"We will be putting in an application for natural disaster declaration on Monday, and hopefully it will be successful."

Mr Gendron says the intensity of this week's event caught the community by surprise.

"We had been watching the weather forecast and the Bureau of Meteorology maps but it just kept getting worse and worse," he said.

"We're the head of the catchment so we copped it all first and it's mainly the velocity of the water up in the higher catchments that's been damaging the approaches to the bridges."


- ABC

© ABC 2012

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