The Floods in Central NSW Are Being Chronicled in Real-Time on TikTok

Residents of Forbes and its neighbouring towns are offering their followers on TikTok a window into life in the face of rapidly rising flood waters, as emergency services in New South Wales launch the largest flood operation in the state’s history.

Emergency services in the town of Forbes, in the Central West of NSW, are currently bracing for its highest flood waters in about 70 years, after major flooding engulfed the town overnight and left an estimated two-third of residents submerged. 

As it stands, the Bureau of Meteorology says the Lachlan River is expected to topple its major flood level of 10.55 metres, and could even surpass record levels of 10.8 metres, unseen since catastrophic flood waters tore through the region in 1952 as soon as Thursday.

A throng of videos chronicling the torrent of flood water that tore through the town of Forbes on Wednesday have since attracted tens of thousands of views on TikTok over the last 24 hours, as creators known for posting farming content, or “farmtok” videos, move to offer context to the carnage being reported across the region.

“So the other day, when we were flooding up here, a lot of people reached out asking how they can help, how can they donate,” said Uppy, a farmer who has interrupted harvesting content twice over the last two weeks to draw attention to catastrophic flooding in the region and call for donations to local charities.

“By donating directly to a local charity you know that all that money will be turned into vouchers and go to people who need it, and then it can be spent locally in the town, so the retail businesses can get back on their feet.”

Videos like those posted by Uppy to TikTok have become increasingly common during natural disasters around the world, as the video app becomes a de facto search engine that serves young people around the world with personalised news and information determined, at least in part, by their interests.

In the United States, residents from across the state of Florida took to the platform’s live-streaming feature in droves to document Hurricane Ian in late September, broadcasting to audiences in the hundreds of thousands. 

For several of the dozens of accounts to document the catastrophic weather event crippling Central West NSW, however, it was only one week ago that they were posting videos of the town’s recovery, after major flooding gripped the region only a fortnight earlier.

If the worst fears of emergency services are realised, up to 600 homes and businesses across Forbes could be savaged by a torrent of flood water overnight into Wednesday, for the second time in as many weeks.

At a press conference on Tuesday morning, NSW premier Dominic Perrottet told reporters that responders had already received more than 900 calls for help in the 24 hours previous, and conducted 222 flood rescues. 

In the 24 hours since, the NSW State Emergency Service has conducted another 17 flood rescues and responded to a further 329 calls for help. Among them were a group of 14 people who were left stranded on the roof of a pub in Forbes as flood waters surged last night, and an elderly couple and their daughter, who were rescued by helicopter. 

“There’s obviously concerns for our communities in Eugowra and Forbes, particularly Forbes this morning, where evacuation orders are in place. Those evacuation orders affect properties impacting hundreds of people. I say to the community in Forbes, we will be with you every step of the way,” Perrottet said on Tuesday.  

“We were only there two weeks ago. They have gone through flood event after flood event after flood event.”

Since then, NSW police confirmed that they had found a body during their search for a woman missing in the nearby town of Eugowra. 

The body, police said later on Wednesday, has yet to be identified, but is believed to be that of the 60-year-old woman police were searching for. Police will also continue their search for another man in his 80s, who is also believed to have gone missing in flood waters.

Speaking to the ABC’s Radio National on Wednesday, Nationals MP Andrew Gee compared the devastation seen across the region to that faced by communities in the northern rivers of NSW, who earlier this year were inundated by catastrophic flooding. 

“[It’s like] Lismore-level devastation but with smaller communities,” Gee said. “That’s what the police who’ve worked on both disasters have been telling me and it is absolutely heartbreaking,” he said. 

“There are buildings which have been picked up from their foundations and literally washed down streets. Some have just been washed away.” 

Matters are only further complicated by the opening of the Wyangala Dam earlier on Tuesday, which sits close to the intersection of the Lachlan and Abercrombie rivers, upstream of the riverside towns of Forbes and Cowra, not far from Eugowra, where flood waters have already destroyed countless homes and infrastructure. 

State authorities expect the dam to spill about 230,000 megalitres of water out into the river, possibly into the paths of nearby communities, every day until water levels are back under control. For weeks now, record rainfall has smothered the region.

The vast amount of water spilling out from the Wyangala dam, which could fill Sydney harbour several times over, has triggered major concern for state authorities and people living in low lying areas across the region.

As a result, local authorities have called in for help from both the Australian Defence Force, and emergency responders from New Zealand, who will help the NSW State Emergency Service respond to calls for help and conduct rescue operations for the first time in the agency’s history.

Follow John on Twitter.

Read more from VICE Australia and subscribe to our weekly newsletter, This Week Online.