Around fifty people and at least five horses have been rescued from a bridge outside of Lismore after being stranded overnight above flood waters.
The incredible scenes were caught on camera by news helicopters surveying flood damage in the early hours of this morning.
Motorists and livestock escaping flood waters in northern NSW became trapped on Woodburn bridge on Monday night.
The traffic appears to have been heading in the direction of Lismore town centre before flood waters rose and swallowed either end of the arched bridge.
The SES was unable to execute the rescue until this morning due to dark and dangerous conditions last night.
Four generations of the Enoch family have survived the flood disaster in Lismore – the youngest a six week old baby and their 87-year-old grandmother.
Kaydi Enoch told Sunrise that, “It was one of the scariest moments of my life”
The SES arrived to evacuate the family but it took three boat return boat trips to get the entire family of fourteen to safety.
Kaydi had to leave her nieces and nephews behind at the house and get her newborn child, mum and grandmother to safety first.
The water was just above their knees when she got on the boat and by the third load the SES said they were swimming in the flood water.
The entire family of fourteen are shaken but in good health after the incident.
“The kids are good, they are asking when can they go home,” she said. “It’s difficult to explain to them that we don’t have a home to go to and all our belongings are gone and destroyed and we only have a bag of clothes,” she said.
“I just wanted to thank the SES crews and the fireys and my heart goes out to other people in the same situation,” Kaydi told 7 News.
