DUNGOG recorded the state’s highest daily rainfall total of 192mm on Monday, 28 April.
Just days after the tenth anniversary of the deadly floods of 2015, locals were again given cause for concern.
On social media, river and creek levels were a hot topic, as was speculation about the amount of water still bucketing down.
One wit posted a photo of a bucket for sale as a rain gauge; “suitable for Dungog areas”, their post read.
After hundreds of millimetres of rain in the preceding weeks, the ground was saturated and Dungog’s 2025 January-April rainfall total was approaching twice the recorded average for any year since 1962.
Local resident Stephen Farrow’s rain gauge caught over 152mm from 9am Saturday to Monday morning.
And he wasn’t the only one keeping a close eye on the rising river and creeks.
However, the town was better prepared than it was in 2015.
Council and the community have taken a number of important steps, such as installing monitoring systems.
Even outside business hours, council representatives and community members kept locals informed online of road, bridge and facilities closures and danger spots.
These frequent updates also had info for areas that were not included in 2015.
Since that flood, the SES has improved plans, training and resources for emergency responses.
Before the Williams River peaked at over seven metres on Monday 28 April, and a Flood Watch was issued, SES volunteers were already out and about.
Roger and Craig from Maitland SES were on the job around Dungog, doing some “cleaning up”.
They said they were in the area “just in case”.
For days afterwards, river levels fluctuated and slowly dropped as downpours and drizzle came and went.
Luckily, Dungog missed the worst of the 30 April storms which saw some Newcastle suburbs inundated.
By Sunday 4 May, Dungog and the district was still very damp, but the river had dropped to 1.75m.
By Lisa WISEMAN
