Flood waters have yet to peak on the lower Richmond River but already have exceeded the record 1954 height by more than a meter, leaving crops drowned and cattle swimming as people struggle for their lives.
Fourth generation Kilgin farmer Tony Carusi evacuated his home downriver from Woodburn in the early hours of this morning with the water still rising.
"We built our house 400mm above the 1:100 year flood but this one came in 700mm above that," he said. At this point people stop worrying about crops and equipment and just concentrate on getting themselves to safety."
The "catastrophic" rate of rise in the river during the early hours of Tuesday morning caught many experienced land holders by surprise, with most expecting heights to challenge previous records, but they did not anticipate such volumes of murky water.
"We've had one meter above the record lower river flood of 1954 and in the past everyone thought that would have been impossible," Mr Carusi said. "All the old timers that knocked around with the flood mitigation engineers understood that at this level flood water would run to the sea through Boundary Creek but some are saying now that the new Pacific Highway is acting like a levee."
At Woodburn people have been evacuated to the highest point of land, occupied by the primary school, while other people and horses who were unable to get there spent the night on the Woodburn bridge, over the Richmond River, with access on and off the structure well under water.
Crops like soybeans throughout the flooded valley will be destroyed but it is too soon to know how "dryland" rice and sugar cane will fare, some of it under 3m of water, until levels drop. Sunny days are the enemy of floodwater, causing temperatures to spike but there is hope that a shower of rain on Thursday will wash silt off green leaves and at least give cattle some pick.
Rice and soybean grower and beef producer Brett Slater Fairy Hill on the Richmond River north of Casino said with the flood peak now slowly dropping it was a waiting game before damage could be accurately assessed but all 100 head of Angus are currently missing, presumed mostly safe on higher ground.
"We grow more soybeans than rice so right now it is a waiting game," he said. "By the end of the week we should know exactly how they look If we get a shower of rain before that it would be a good thing. It would also ash silt off grass to give the cattle some feed.
"Right now we just have to go through the process of figuring out what is the most important job and concentrate on that."
There is one small ray of sunshine for breeder Glen Pfeffer, Mogul Brahmans at Stratheden who returned to the property by tractor to find the house spared, and a cow with calf safe at the top yards after swimming the better part of two kilometres to safety.
Meanwhile State Emergency Services are focussing on stranded residents in the down river townships of Broadwater, Wardell and Ballina.
