Many parents struggled to get children to school in the wake of the storm, but none more so than families travelling to Gillieston Public School.

Rover Coaches, the bus company that operates the school run, would usually pick up children from the old part of Gillieston, Heddon Greta and Cliftleigh via Testers Hollow.

With the road cut the bus company cannot run this service, which has left up to 30 students outside Gillieston Heights stranded and at least five children in old Gillieston reliant on parents to drive them.

“We have been crisis managing daily,” Rover Coaches general manager Michael Kerr said.

“We have had to adjust all buses to free up coaches to bring kids out of Gillieston going to schools like Hunter Valley Grammar and Maitland Grossmann. We had hoped the rest could car pool or get lifts with friends in the meantime.”

Bus timetables and routes have been changed to collect most of the students but the issue has been the schedule.

The buses can do two trips to come back and pick-up the leftover students, but this would mean children arrive at least 45 minutes late for school.

It would also rely on teachers to hang around at the end of the day for up to an hour before the coaches could come back to get students.

“Multiple road closures and constantly changing conditions mean we haven’t had that much notice to try to manage the routes,” Mr Kerr said.

“We are getting 100 kids out of Gillieston Heights now that weren’t getting to school last week.

“But there are still 20 to 30 kids stranded in Heddon Greta and Cliftleigh.”

Some of those students have been attending Kurri Kurri Public School.

Bruce Sellars is one father now doing the school run to get his two boys to Gillieston Public School.

He believes the government needs to step in and get the road at Testers Hollow fixed so children can get to school and get home safely.

“On Monday afternoon I went to pick up the boys from school and there was a young girl who had been dropped off and told to get the bus home,” Mr Sellars said.

“But during the day the bus had been cancelled and the poor girl was stranded.  Then you have the kids that can’t even get to school.”

Mr Sellars said the out-of-pocket costs for fuel made it hard to drive the boys to school every day.

“I have worked here for at least 35 years and Testers has always flooded,” Mr Kerr said. “In the past we just bypassed Gillieston completely, but the difference is since 2007 there has been a huge increase in residential places and people.”

Cessnock Road at Testers Hollow will remain closed until the water drops low enough for Cessnock Council to assess the damage on and underneath the road.