Manning-based Red Cross volunteer Ruth Sumpner has assisted at the Taree evacuation centre during the flood emergency while her own family were unaccounted for.
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Ruth's 17-year-old and 15-year-old children, Griffon Sumpner-Johnston and Drew Sumpner-Johnston, were stranded at a property near the Bushland Drive Racecourse in Taree as floodwaters rose on Saturday.
Ruth is the team leader for the Red Cross in the Manning area and was at the Club Taree evacuation centre just after 6am that morning after being called in to provide support.
"The kids told us they were helping move some racehorses from the riverbank at Dawson River."
Ruth said after they had moved the horses to a higher area the first time, the water was knee deep by the time they walked back to the house.
"They realised the water was moving fast.
"They moved the horses again and when they got back to the house the water was 50cm deep and coming up quick, and not long after was at about a metre and a half.
"It was up to my daughter's armpit level."
While this was all happening, Ruth was receiving calls updating her on the situation, while at the same time signing people in to the evacuation centre.
"I sent my older daughter to go and pick them up. She was going through the streets and they were blocked. It took her about 40 minutes to get there."
Ruth got a phone call to say her children, their friend Nichole Scott and Nichole's two-year-old daughter Alexis were swimming out.
"They had three great danes, two small dogs, a guinea pig in a bucket and a school bag with a laptop. They unfortunately lost a school bag with uniforms in it that got swept away."
Ruth said the phone calls kept coming while she was signing people in and trying to play it down.
At one stage the police attended the evacuation centre for something else. Ruth said she asked about the properties at the end of Kanangra Drive and when she explained to him her kids were there, he told her everyone at the property had been accounted for.
It was another 20 to 30 minutes before the first of her children walked into the evacuation centre, drenched from head to toe.
"I burst into tears. I was so grateful."
That night Ruth helped her son get rid of a spider in his ear, caused by the swim through floodwaters.
"My heart was in my mouth," said Ruth.
"It's affected our entire community and everyone needs to pull together," she said.
She said Club Taree was fantastic in looking after the volunteers as well as the evacuees.
The club also had a designated room for people with pets, including cats and dogs, and local vets attended, some taking cats back to their clinics to stay.
The evacuation centre volunteers were managed by a Disaster Welfare Team made up of people from the Department of Communities and Justice.
"They manage the team that includes the Red Cross, the Samaritans and other charity groups."
Ruth said the emergency situation was pretty scary.
"We didn't know what to expect.
"The people coming in were people we know. It's hard in a local area because it is people you know. They say the water was at my gutter and your heart breaks because you know everything in the house has gone."
She said she spoke to a lady on Sunday who had lost everything but was happy to be at the evacuation centre.
Club Taree's evacuation centre was closed late Tuesday afternoon with some people given two nights accommodation elsewhere.
Ruth said she was concerned about what would happen after those two nights for people who had nowhere to go, as some are people without homes and there is nothing available to rent locally.
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