Tamworth weather: SES crews kept busy all night after heavy rain across New England North West

Tamworth SES boss Superintendent Mitch Parker told the Leader volunteers responded to more than 50 jobs across the New England North West.

The downpour caused calls for help to flood in to the local control centre, as residents mostly reported leaky roofs, fallen trees, water over roads and a need for sandbags.

A serious flood rescue was carried out at Bellata, about 50km north of Narrabri, after a car and the people inside it were swept off the Newell Highway during flash flooding.

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"A vehicle and its occupants drove unintentionally into flood water, it was a place where it was dark and they couldn't see," Superintendent Parker said.

Crews were urgently deployed from Narrabri and Moree and found the passengers had already made it to safety uninjured, but the car was lodged in flood water.

"During the late hours of last night, we started to notice an increased amount of rainfall particularly around Tamworth and the outerlying areas," Superintendent Parker said.

"As the evening progressed, we started to get some flash flooding in the low-lying areas of Tamworth."

Volunteers didn't pack up and head home until about 8am on Tuesday morning.

Helpers from the local Rural Fire Service (RFS) and the SES worked together overnight to keep the community safe.

There were three SES crews on the ground in Tamworth, two RFS crews, and staff from Tamworth Regional Council preparing and coordinating jobs.

Downpour drama stuck when the Bureau of Meteorology (BoM) issued a flood warning for the Peel River in the early hours of Tuesday morning.

Superintendent Parker said the first flood warning was issued for minor flooding, and the second was issued for moderate flooding.

"We were researching the consequences of those flood warnings while the volunteers continued to respond to jobs," he said.

"All of the volunteers worked extremely hard and the community was fantastic and very patient as the guys and girls were out there doing their best," Superintendent Parker said.

The hope was Tuesday's weather might bring some relief for emergency services, but the SES boss said there could still be some "residual" jobs trickle in.

With several roads closed to traffic, he asked the public to be very careful driving around, and never enter flood water - even if there is no sign up.

More than 94mm of rain was dumped on Tamworth in the past 24 hours, according to the BoM weather gauge at the airport.