The floodwaters are very slowly receding across the Hunter, but communities remain isolated, roads are cut off and the ground is absolutely saturated.
The Hunter River at Singleton fell below the minor flood level on Saturday morning and is currently sitting at 5.33 metres at 5:15am on Monday morning.
The Hunter River at Maitland peaked on Friday and is currently at 6.42 metres and falling.
Maitland residents breathed a sigh of relief on Friday night with engineers jumping into action to fix a part of the levee system that failed. Residents were sent a warning to evacuate but thankfully the problem was fixed and residents were able to stay put.
The Hunter River at Raymond Terrace also peaked on Friday and is currently at 2.44 metres and remaining steady. It’s expected to stay just above the minor flood level today.
A number of communities remain isolated across the region.
Gillieston Heights continues to be isolated with road closures at Testers Hollow and Cessnock Road cutting the community off. They will remain isolated until the Hunter River falls below the minor flood level.
Hinton, Wallalong, Millers Forrest and Duckenfield and the surrounding areas continue to be isolated as well.
A number of roads remain closed as well including main arterial roads like the New England Highway between Melbourne Street in East Maitland and the old Maitland Hospital roundabout, Tomago Road between Graham Drive and Masonite Road, Main Road/Cessnock Road between Maitland and Cliftleigh, and Raymond Terrace Road between Government Road and Woodberry Road.
Minor flooding is easing along the Wollombi Brook.
Minor flooding is occurring at Bulga, where the river level peaked well above the March 2022 flood and 1.0metre higher than the 1952 flood on Wednesday last week. It is yet to drop below the minor flood level of 3.0 metres.
The NSW State Emergency Service will issue their next update later this morning.