April 21, 2015, 9:10 p.m
Falling trees and flash floods had Maitland at a standstill as torrential rain and gale force wind battered the city.
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Many people skipped work to bunker down in their homes after more than 245mm of rain fell before 9am.
Tocal weather station recorded more than 377mm of rain between midnight on Monday and 3.30pm yesterday.
Maitland was isolated from various towns around the valley, as flash floods cut Tocal Road near Tocal Agricultural College and inundated Wollombi Road at the Farley railway underpass.
The Hunter Expressway and parts of the New England Highway at East Maitland, Branxton and Greta, were also closed.
Trees had been uprooted across the city and flash flooding had begun in East Maitland, Rutherford and Oakhampton by mid morning.
Some people were lucky to escape unscathed.
A family sat huddled in their Thornton home in the early hours of Tuesday as a large gum tree smashed two fences and struck their roof.
Two people pulled a 95-year-old man from a car at Green Hills yesterday afternoon after he became trapped in a flash flood at Molly Morgan Drive.
“Suddenly there was water everywhere, the car stopped and we were helpless,” the man’s daughter, Cecilia Low said.
“I managed to open the door and the water rushed in. My father was just sitting there and he said he was very cold.
“But suddenly two men appeared and they picked my father up and took him out of the car.”
A Metford family watched in horror as a large gum tree fell and smashed their new caravan and narrowly missed their house.
Rapids formed on the bowling greens at the back of Telarah Bowling Club, as water rushed down Bligh Street and pooled near the railway tracks.
Cars in the street were almost fully submerged and one resident, who lived in an elevated house, said she had to evacuate with her four children as water began to enter her home.
“We’d just been watching the rain like we normally would,” Chris Freeman said.
“It rose within about half an hour from when we first saw it on the road, up to about two metres out the front.”
The State Emergency Service warned that the Hunter River would rise to the Belmore Bridge and the flood level would hit 8.9 metres by 3am.
