Wagga floods forecast to reach 1853 levels

Wagga Wagga is southern NSW is expected to be inundated by the highest floodwaters since 1853.

Eight-thousand residents are evacuating the central business district and Flowerdale areas as the Murrumbidgee River threatens to breach the Riverina city’s levee banks.

The Bureau of Meteorology expects the river to peak at 10.9 metres by about 9am (AEDT) on Tuesday, reaching a level last recorded in Wagga Wagga in July 1853.

That level would only be marginally below the all-time record of 10.97 metres reached in October 1844, data from Wagga Wagga City Council shows.

NSW Premier Barry O’Farrell is due to visit the city on Tuesday morning, less than 12 hours after an urgent evacuation order was issued for Wagga Wagga’s CBD and surrounding areas.

The latest evacuation in Wagga Wagga amounts to the biggest emergency evacuation since heavy rains began falling last week.

Mr O’Farrell is expected to tour flood-damaged areas of Wagga Wagga with SES Commissioner Murray Kear on Tuesday morning, before fronting parliamentary question time in the afternoon, his spokesman told AAP.

State Emergency Service region controller James McTavish has told residents to leave by dawn.

“Don’t delay. This is a very serious issue and if you live in any of the areas that are subject to an evacuation you must be clear … by 6am,” he told reporters on Monday night.

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