I have friends in Orange NSW and have just seen on the news that there are floods in that state.Does anyone know[or live in that town]if it has been flooded out?merely a little wet?.Thanks for any info'.

Flooding has been, and is still is horrendous, across NSW, Vic and Qld in particular.

Some links for Orange -
http://www.centralwesterndaily.com.a...e/2018850.aspx
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2...06/3085566.htm
http://www.bordermail.com.au/special...e.aspx?id=4280

http://www.smh.com.au/environment/we...212-18u22.html

Polly - when they say the water's say 4.55 m high, to what does the datum refer?

Actual depth of the water.

Nightmare when talking about rivers, as unless you know the flooding point of each individual river at each bridge/crossing it doesn't really mean a lot. We get reports of a river reaching 20metres, but that means nothing to us cos it might not flood till 22metres - its a discussion we had a work only last week.
4.55m deep in the streets however, would mean an actual 4.55m flood.

We've been watching Rockhampton all week, its expected to exceed 7m today, thats a minor flood level there,whereas in Charleville 6.0-6.2 m is a major flood. Not easy to work with!!

You'd think they would have a datum post in the water at every town with, say, the height amsl as the datum and refer to *that* - too simple?

I think a lot of towns do, but the BoM goes by river height unfortunately After a while there are a few which tend to stick in the mind like Rockhampton or Charleville, but its not very helpful really to either us or the public to just quote the depth figures

Posted on here about a week ago concerning floods in NSW--have heard that there has been more rain.Does anyone know[or live]in Orange NSW--friends live in the Clinton road[street??]area--has this area been flooded.Can't remember the exact address;can't get an answer when I phone.Thanks for any info'.Happy christmas and new year.
Lots of horrible snow here--kids love it.Just spent an hour shovelling it away.

I've merged your two threads together

To be honest, I think your best bet is to contact the town council.
http://www.orange.nsw.gov.au/site/in...display=145040
My other suggestion would be the local Red Cross - http://www.whitepages.com.au/busSear...ion=orange+nsw
There has been a lot of flooding down there and many areas have been evacuated. In some cases people may well still be out of there homes as rivers are still exceptionally high and problems with power, sewage etc may stop them moving back in. The rain isn't likely to let up for sometime and some of the rivers take months to drop.
If your family were in an evacuation area the Council may well know of their whereabouts. If they went to an evacuation centre then the Council can tell you who has the records, and even if they self-evacuated to friends then organisations like the local Red Cross do try and keep records in case anyone is searching for family.

If it was Queensland I could be more help at putting you in touch with people, but I don't think we have any posters on here that work in NSW emergency management.

Hi wilf 70 - I live in Orange and yes we have had a lot of rain, including bloody monsoon like rain this weekend!
Sorry I didn't post earlier - didn't realise from the title that you were interested in Orange - not too many are

Clinton street is near the centre of Orange and is fine. Everywhere is pretty damp, but its the east of Orange that is lower lying and where there is more of a problem, though no big evacuations or anything.

I am heading off into town later on this monring and will call past clinton street to just be 100 per cent for you.

Local areas like Molong have been more affected but remember that Orange is up a big hill and at 800m elevation so not so easily affected. It has apparently been declared a disaster area, but that is frankly a nonsense, and more to do with getting more state funding to sort the roads, which are in a shocking state

Let me know if you want anything else

Great stuff, glad there's someone down there

And yes, re the Disaster Area thing - the only way to get Federal funding to fix up State assets is to declare a disaster. They do this when the damage to State assets hits a certain level (which varies for each Shire/County) and then any roads, bridges etc can be fixed without the State or the Council worrying about the cost. A State can end up with huge areas declared as a disaster (certainly the case with Qld and NSW at present) when in fact its only a few pockets that are hard hit. Sounds worse than it is, but it opens the door to the funding, so thats good
More info here for anyone thats interested - its from the Qld site, but the basic idea is the same elsewhere.

hi wilf

me again...just been down town and went via the lowest lying bit of Clinton Street to check no-one using a boat or anything

Indeed it was as I last saw it, a little damp but not even a sandbag in sight.

There is no river in Orange so its really tricky to flood us out, though the rainmaker has been giving it a good go in the past few weeks.

It is however bloody freezing and I have had the heater on yesterday and today even though we are supposed to be in summer ....ha bloody ha

having arrived a year ago and had the wettest christmas ever ..followed by the worst winter in ten years ...followed by the wettest spring, I am not meaing to seem ungrateful, but where is the sun???

But still better than several inches of snow
Scotty

Dubbo on the other hand had major flooding as did other towns on the Macquarie river. Orange is just flaming freezing. And I didn't bring a jumper.

Thanks for all the info--off to shovel some more snow--I hate the bl...dy stuff

Just for info we have and are continuing to have a serious deluge in Orange that we weren't completely expecting and while we are not in boats - there has been a lot of damange to business and property. We had over 100mm last night and its still raining.

You may want to check out that your friends in Clinton St are ok as it is the centre of town that has been hit this time

http://www.centralwesterndaily.com.a...s/2034395.aspx

Scotty

The Macquarie and Bell Rivers had flood warnings reinstigated yesterday at Molong and Wellington as well as Warren and Carinda continuing to flood from the last rains. Looks like a miserable New Year for many.