Gunnedah flooding: damage bill estimated in the millions as Namoi River flooding moves downstream

Gunnedah braced for its fourth flood of the year, just a week after an estimated four homes were inundated last weekend.

The Namoi River hit the major flood level for the second time in two weekends on Saturday and Sunday, after heavy rain midweek.

Cr Jamie Chaffey said it will be some time before Gunnedah Shire Council will be able to assess the damage to the community, even to know how many homes have been flooded in the major event.

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But he said it's already clear the damage is extensive.

"It's clear it's going to take days to see the full effect within the township and it will take weeks for us to do our assessments on all the road infrastructure from a council perspective," he said.

"We've been still trying to recover now from all the way back to last November with our road network. It's going to be millions of dollars in damage."

Cr Chaffey has already started a push for state government funding for repair works across the region, plus a renewed flood mitigation study of Gunnedah.

"There hasn't been one done across the shire, in my understanding, for a long period of time. Things change. I think it's time now for that to happen again," he said.

The Namoi River peaked at 8.24m on Saturday, with the water level falling steadily after dropping below the major flood level of 7.9m at about midday on Sunday.

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Council workers, emergency service volunteers and community members jumped into action to halt damage to homes and businesses, for the second weekend in a row.

Gunnedah deputy mayor Rob Hooke was one of them, helping prepare a friend's low-lying house.

He was quick to praise the State Emergency Service (SES) for a "very, very accurate" warning ahead of the flood event, which helped disaster preparations, he said.

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Nonetheless, his friends were flooded twice in the last week. They were back in the house for just two days, and probably won't be able to get back until Tuesday, Cr Hooke said.

"They seem to be fine, but frustrated," he said.

"They're saying 'look we hear there's been some talk from the state government of buying back places that are continually inundated and virtually getting to the point of can we habitat it any more.'"

"They're saying 'would someone buy my place so I can move?'"

Cr Hooke said council water crews were already spraying away mud, which he said was an urgent task because of the difficulty of clearing out dry mud once it has set hard.

"You go ten yards down the street and see floodwater and behind it it's all nice and clean and shiny and wet [and cleaned of mud]," he said.

Cr Chaffey said, with more rain forecast, the community would be keeping a close eye on the horizon for the foreseeable future.

The SES said on Saturday that floodwaters had remained for more than 24 hours at the major flood level upstream of Gunnedah at Breeza, suggesting the decline of the water level downstream could take some time.

The floodwater is headed for Wee Waa which could remain flooded until Friday, according to the SES.

Communities including Boggabri and Narrabri face minor flooding on Sunday and Monday, with the town of Wee Waa affected by a major flood which cut it off last week, closing country roads and highways across the region.

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