<div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>A woman has described desperately lifting her daughter and six-day-old granddaughter into a roof cavity to escape a roaring "inland tsunami" that suddenly engulfed their rural home.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>An enormous flash flood razed much of the village of Eugowra, in central western NSW, on the morning of November 14, 2022, killing two locals, 60-year-old Diane Smith and 85-year-old Ljubisa "Les" Vugec.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>An inquest is examining the circumstances of their deaths, along with the lead-up to the flood, the weather warnings and scale of the emergency response.</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><span> </span><a href="https://www.9news.com.au/national/warm-and-loving-teen-thom-hosking-killed-on-way-to-school-was-days-from-starting-his-first-job/d86a67af-aee8-4e9a-8fd3-8efa523cf1aa" target="_blank"><strong><span>'Warm and loving' teen killed on way to school was days from starting his first job</span></strong></a></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Vugec's neighbour Anne South said low-lying water lapped near her house about 9am after a night of heavy rain, as many locals prepared for the local creek to flood like it had done many times before.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>South had invited a friend to take refuge in her home and the pair were drinking tea and coffee on the verandah, knowing her house was in a part of town considered safe from major flooding.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>But by about 9.25am, floodwater began to rise rapidly and she ushered her daughter and her six-day-old baby inside.</span></div></div><div><div class="OUTBRAIN" data-reactroot="" data-src="//www.9news.com.au/national/how-mum-and-newborn-survived-flash-flood-eugowra-nsw-central-west/12c616f1-9b78-4672-85a7-9f170b2066f0" data-widget-id="AR_5"></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><strong><span>READ MORE:</span></strong><span> </span><a href="https://www.9news.com.au/national/australia-weather-update-south-eastern-temperatures-vary-wildly/8390caa8-e0e2-447f-ac56-00d77c6f10cf" target="_blank"><strong><span>Whip-sawing temperatures to see millions bake while others freeze</span></strong></a></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>She soon saw an "inland tsunami" of brown, swirling water approaching.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"It was coming over the tops of trees, it was terrifying," she told the inquest at Orange courthouse today.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"It filled the sky as it was coming along, I was looking at it and thinking, 'I've got to run'."</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>In the moments before the wave approached, South spotted Vugec in his backyard with his dog.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"I told him 'you need to go inside, close your door and try to get up high'," South recalled.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"I told him to let the dog go at one stage but he didn't."</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>South said she was concerned about her daughter, the baby and her friend inside.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><strong><span>READ MORE:</span></strong><span> </span><a href="https://www.9news.com.au/world/israel-gaza-update-donald-trump-addresses-israeli-knesset-calls-for-benjamin-netanyahu-pardon/3c63614b-9899-4340-bf0f-29b4a6f43dad" target="_blank"><strong><span>Joy, relief and jubilation as Israeli hostages and Palestinian prisoners and detainees given freedom</span></strong></a></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Inside the house, South stacked a bar stool and a table on top of each other to lift her daughter and the baby into the roof cavity, while she put her friend onto a bench.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"The water was just swirling, like rapids and everything started to go," she said.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"The way it happened, you wouldn't have stood a chance if you were out there."</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>The water remained up to her chest until 2pm while they waited for emergency services, who were using helicopters to rescue people from roofs.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>At many points South said she was choking on water, as her furniture floated around her.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"The noise and the screaming of people was even worse, having to hear it and there wasn't anything I could do."</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Local Rural Fire Service volunteer Patrick Welsh spotted Diane Smith and her son Chris sitting outside their house and picked them up in the fire truck before 7.30am.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>When he dropped Smith with other evacuees on a bridge, she thanked him.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"Her last words to me were 'thank you Patrick Welsh, I owe you a beer'."</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>The inquest has been told Smith was later seen clinging to a tree, before her body was found two days later.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>The inquest continues before Deputy State Coroner David O'Neil.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 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