As the Hunter and Williams rivers continue to rise, Dungog and Raymond Terrace were the worst hit of nearby regions, with parts of Newcastle also inundated.
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At Raymond Terrace, six streets were evacuated.
The SES ordered residents in Hunter, Glenelg, Swan, Port Stephens, King and Kangaroo streets to leave their homes.
Businesses in the lower end of town were also evacuated as the floodwater inched its way into the Market Place car park.
In just over eight months, two Dungog businesses were again cleaning up after their properties were flooded.
Reliance Motors’ employees drove more than 20 second-hand tractors to higher ground after Myall Creek again broke its banks and water flooded their building.
Owner Barry Irwin said they had 30cm of water in their building, but they had gone down the night before to lift as much stuff up off the ground as they could.
“We came down at 2pm on Tuesday during the torrential rain and got the tractors out,” he said.
“Some of them were ours, others were in for repairs and the rest were for sale.
“We had wonderful volunteers who came down and helped but how far do you go? We got most of the manuals up to higher ground and [wife] Bev came down and got the computers.
“We changed our insurance policy, so hopefully we will be OK, but we’ve still got a lot of cleaning up to do.”
Ashley Myhill from Dungog Tyre Service couldn’t believe it was happening again.
In April, his Dowling Street building was virtually washed away and he later moved his business into Sheltons’ former bus depot, which is now owned by Dungog Council.
“We had 10 inches of water through the shed this time,” he said.
“We came down at 7pm on Tuesday and lifted up what we could before water started coming in through the front door.
“At this stage we haven’t lost anything, we just have a big clean-up on our hands.
“We are very aware of what happens here when it floods and we don’t have any insurance for this building – it was just too expensive – so we took the gamble.
“If we get wiped out here then we’re finished.”
