Yards become rubbish dumps as flood clean-up continues

Months worth of rain was dumped in a matter of days in some areas, with five people killed during the floods that followed.

Mr Newell and his family evacuated their Taree home on Tuesday afternoon before the Manning River reached its highest level on record.

"Our front yard at the moment looks like a rubbish dump," he told AAP.

Some sentimental items placed up high survived.

"All the mattresses and everything, that's all gone."

"Ridiculous" quotes for contents insurance at the rented home were too much. 

"We ran the risk, it is what it is," Mr Newell said.

But support from the community has been almost overwhelming.

"I know there's others out there that are worse off than us by miles.

"It's a pretty big, costly clean-up for us all.

"We've just been cleaning up as best we can and trying to see what we can salvage."

His immediate focus was on trying to restore some normality for his three children.

"They're a bit devo that they've lost most of their toys and stuff like that."

The SES has conducted 200 resupply operations in recent days to cut-off communities, including parts of Kempsey, Port Macquarie, Dungog, Port Stephens, Maitland, Central Coast and Nambucca Valley.

Up to 50,000 people are estimated to be isolated.

The agency responded to more than 7200 incidents and conducted 774 flood rescues.

Assistant Commissioner Allison Flaxman said almost 10,000 properties had been flooded, with damage assessments beginning on Saturday.

"Please allow damage assessment to take place before you begin to washout your property.

"We need to evaluate the extent of property and infrastructure damage to ensure your property is safe to return to," Ms Flaxman said.  

Premier Chris Minns visited Taree and said the state government wants to help the community get back on its feet as soon as possible.

Hardship and disaster grants are planned to become available in the coming days and efforts to improve flood resilience in Taree and other communities will follow.

But previous attempts, while well intentioned, had not always delivered in areas hit by flooding.

"We're determined not to repeat the mistakes of the past, given we're having more and more of these natural disasters," Mr Minns said.