Stranded residents of flooded NSW towns are just "putting one foot in front of the other" as they endure devastating rains in the wake of bushfires and drought.
Homes have been swept away, livelihoods ruined and thousands evacuated amid torrential rain that has lashed parts of the state for days.
Some 20 evacuation orders are in place from the Mid-North Coast to the Illawarra and western and north-western Sydney, with the State Emergency Service warning the deluge will continue and more evacuations are likely.
Outside Long Flat, a town about 50km west of Port Macquarie, farmer Sophie Love says the river has risen over eight meters above its usual level.
"No one has ever seen it this bad, we are surrounded by 80-year-old neighbours and in living memory it has never come up on the flat outside our house, which it did yesterday in an hour," she told SBS News.
Their house has been cut off by flooded roads and they have been unable to survey the damage to much of their 400-acre property. Ms Love said they expect to remain cut off for weeks.
"We just have to distract ourselves until we can get over there and do what we can. We survived the drought, survived the bushfires, we just keep putting one foot in front of the other," she said.
Ms Love expressed frustration that "no one is taking [climate change] seriously".
"We never thought it was possible (that the water would come up so high). When the drought happened we were told the river had never stopped flowing before, so in two years we have seen a massive change in the climate on this farm alone," she said.
"It is so frustrating that no one is listening, no one is paying any attention and no one is taking this seriously," she added.
Nancy Colligan, 74, works at the local pub in Coopernock and lives upstairs.
She moved her car to higher ground on Friday but it didn't prevent it from being flooded out. She says she had relied on locals bringing her in food on small boats as the whole town is flooded.
"It just kept on rising, we knew it was going to flood but we didn't know it was going to be this bad," she told SBS News.
Rob Costigan, from Pappinbarra near Wauchope, said losing his home after surviving fire and drought was a "kick in the guts".
"We battled through the fires in 2019 to save the place just to have it washed away," he told ABC TV.
"It is heart wrenching."
Mr Costigan was able to save his dogs but holds grave fears for his livestock.
"The neighbours are saying that things are hanging from trees," he said.
Restaurateur Nathan Tomkins says the past few days have been a nightmare rollercoaster.
An inundated barn is seen in floodwaters in Richmond, NSW, on 22 March. Source: AFP via Getty Images
After record flooding at the Hastings River over the weekend, his eatery was inundated with neck-high water.
The venture he's spent 24 years building is in ruins.
"The water just went right through and just destroyed everything. There is nothing left," he told ABC TV.
"This is just like a nightmare, it really is."
It isn't over yet either, with much of the Mid-North Coast bracing for more flooding on Monday.
"I'm feeling like I'm on a roller coaster. I woke up this morning and I just pinch myself to go, 'Okay, this is not real'. But it's real," Mr Tomkins said.
With AAP.
