<div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>The weather bureau issued a major flood alert for a rural village at 9.07am, warning of very high river levels in the afternoon.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>About 17 minutes later, the village of Eugowra, in central western NSW, was hit by a destructive flash flood described by survivors as a "wall of water" or an "inland tsunami".</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Lifelong resident Diane Smith, 60, and Ljubisa "Les" Vugec, 85, died in the disaster on November 14, 2022, which also resulted in 124 helicopter rescues as locals clung to trees or perched on roofs to survive.</span></div></div><div><div id="adspot-mobile-medium"></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><strong><span>READ MORE: </span></strong><a href="https://www.9news.com.au/national/sydney-oxford-street-pink-pony-gay-club-forced-to-change-its-name-after-community-backlash/2b89f08c-cbdf-4fa0-bc71-3a9ff002b2b2" rel="" target="_blank" title=""><strong><span>New Sydney nightclub forced to change its name after community outrage</span></strong></a></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>The vast majority of houses in the village, which has a population of 800, were damaged or destroyed when the Mandagery Creek peaked at 11.02 metres.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>An inquest is examining the deaths of Smith and Vugec, along with the lead-up to the disaster, the weather warnings and the scale of the emergency response.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Matthew Collopy, a senior manager from the Bureau of Meteorology, today defended the agency's flood warning that morning as "clear and timely".</span></div></div><div><div class="OUTBRAIN" data-reactroot="" data-src="//www.9news.com.au/national/bureau-of-meteorology-defends-warning-after-town-was-flooded-hours-before-forecast/9215d763-886e-444e-9732-1f74660c4bf3" data-widget-id="AR_5"></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>The warning issued just before the water rose said creek levels "may reach" 10.5m, leaving room for the possibility of further rises, Collopy said.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>The experienced meteorologist, who manages the national warning system from Brisbane, said the flood advice was based on all available data from rain and river gauges, satellites and weather radars.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>The bureau did not know until later that two gauges upstream at Toogong and Smithfield had been damaged and were not transmitting data.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>There were also no instruments at the creek in the village, he said.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"It should be pointed out that we did not have any data information coming from Eugowra town," Collopy told the inquest at Orange courthouse today.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><strong><span>READ MORE: </span></strong><a href="https://www.9news.com.au/national/sydney-ryde-area-investigations-into-explicit-deepfake-photos-of-female-high-school-students/858bc59c-1363-44f5-916a-7185cb808ce3" rel="" target="_blank" title=""><strong><span>Police probe explicit deepfake photos of female high school students</span></strong></a></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>There were up to six meteorologists working on the bureau's flood desk the night before the disaster, at a time when there were 43 warnings across Australia and 14 in NSW, the inquest was told.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>The Mandagery Creek has since been prioritised for a telemetric gauge under a 10-year federal government program.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Collopy said the telemetric gauge could improve flood warnings, but it was awaiting various state and federal planning approvals.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>When Deputy State Coroner David O'Neil questioned the "tardiness" of installing the gauge, Collopy said there were 10,000 flood warning instruments across Australia and only a third were overseen by the bureau.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>He said the federal program to upgrade warning systems was a "once in a generation" opportunity.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"Without that funding and efforts, it's been very difficult for the bureau and other agencies to upgrade and maintain this very large network," Collopy told the coroner.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Water NSW maintained the upstream gauges.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Senior technician Andrew Cutler told the inquest it was an ongoing effort to make equipment as robust as possible to withstand extreme weather.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"If we had the budget, we would have started yesterday," Cutler said.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><a href="https://www.9news.com.au/national/how-to-follow-9news-digital/29855bb1-ad3d-4c38-bc25-3cb52af1216f" target="_blank"><strong><em><span>DOWNLOAD THE 9NEWS APP</span></em></strong></a><strong><em><span>: Stay across all the latest in breaking news, sport, politics and the weather via our news app and get notifications sent straight to your smartphone. 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