Lachlan Bosworth was on his way to work at Gloucester with his boss Bruce Kearney when he reached for his phone to record the carnage from the passenger seat.

The pair had just turned around and decided to head back into Dungog when the water hit.

‘‘We didn’t really notice all the water was there until we were in it,’’ Mr Bosworth said.

‘‘It was hard to see because it was raining and still not quite light. I had no idea exactly what was really going on around us.’’

 The photo, which captures Dungog  resident  Jamie Bidner struggling against a tide of water in a bid to help his neighbours, is a powerful, instant  symbol of the sheer force of the worst flood to hit the town in more than a century.

Mr Bidner, whose home was washed away in the  surge, helped his neighbours evacuate  then  went back into the rising waters to Angie Taylor and John Edwards’ home to rescue their  dog.

Not long after the photo was taken, the water inundated and submerged low-lying houses and ripped four cottages – including the one pictured in the main photograph – from their piers in the town’s main street.

They were carried away on the torrent for a kilometre, flotsam for shredding. 

Gone were the homes of Keegan Jones, his mum and dad Colleen and Stephen next door, Mr Bidner and, across the road in Dowling Street, Ms Taylor and Mr Edwards.

With no official warning  during  the night, Mr Bidner said residents helped each other to safety.

‘‘We looked after each other to make sure we all got out safely,’’ he said. ‘‘The speed of the water was something I’d never seen before.’’

A second photo shows Barbara and Peter Vanvalen being rescued from the first floor of a building in Hooke Street by Dungog State Emergency Service members.

After seeing residents stranded on rooftops, Lindsay Darr and publican Bruce Clark drove to the Dungog SES unit and demanded a boat be put in the water.

Mr Darr  was driving his wife to work at 5am and couldn’t believe the amount of water in low-lying areas.

‘‘When I went past the flats in Brown Street where Brian Wilson died, the water was up to the eaves, we had no idea that people were still there hanging on to gutters,’’ he said. ‘‘Then we saw people stranded on rooftops so we went down to the SES to sort of give them a hurry-up and let them know what was going on.’’

Minutes later Dungog SES unit controller Matthew Too and volunteer Ron Studdert had the boat in the water and rescued  the  Vanvalens.  

THE State Emergency Service has launched a major recruitment drive in Dungog following the April flood disaster.

On the morning of the floods that claimed three lives, there were five Dungog SES members who responded to the disaster and one was a non-field administration worker.

Four of the five are members of two Dungog families and the remaining person was the volunteer controller. 

One of the volunteers was only in Dungog on the morning of the floods because he was visiting relatives.

In the weeks after the disaster, the SES confirmed the Dungog unit had eight members.

In a bid to boost numbers the unit is calling for new volunteers to start training in September.

Dungog SES unit controller Matthew Too said interested people were invited to come along to a training night to find out more.

The volunteers meet every Monday at the Dungog SES unit in Clarence Town Road at 7pm.

Newcastle Herald