The NSW town Australia forgot.

Listen to this story being read by Gemma Bath, here.

Mother Nature threw the tiny town of Eugowra in central west NSW a curveball last week. 

A wall of water about two metres high slammed into the township on Monday with little notice for residents to escape. 

Usually, when the Mandagery Creek overflows it seeps into the main street slowly. But this time, residents woke up at 5:56am to an emergency evacuation order by the NSW SES.  

14 minutes later, flash flooding was already occurring. It was like a tsunami, and it quickly engulfed the town. 

Watch: Water quickly engulfed entire homes, leaving residents stranded.

"When that first wave came it was at my knees and within five minutes there was another up around my chest," Chloe Henry told The Daily Telegraph. "I thought I was going to drown."

The damage has been overwhelming. 60-year-old Diane Smith and 85-year-old Les Vugec lost their lives, and hundreds of homes have either been damaged or destroyed. Many locals have had no food or clothing, let alone a place to rest their head. But it's not just that - they're also still grappling with the trauma of the event itself, one which left them scrambling onto roofs and cars and clinging to power lines and street signs. 

Many waited hours to be rescued, not knowing if they'd die before someone reached them. They felt ignored and let down by emergency services. 

That feeling hasn't gone away. 

700 people live in Eugowra, and most are over 60. As a local told Mamamia, "The town is devastated and running their own cleanup. They have minimal time to focus on administering a fundraising project... this small town will need as much help as they can get." 

Last week it was a wall of water. This week it's an impossibly large clean-up for the residents of Eugowra. Image: AAP.

What those in the dry fail to realise is that these walls of water are upending entire communities week in, week out with historic flooding. And because it's no longer a 'novel disaster' they're being left to deal with the ramifications, alone. News coverage is falling on deaf ears while services are simply spread too thin. 

The people of Eugowra - who've just gone through a harrowing and never-before-seen event in their patch - feel like they've been forgotten. 

As local plasterer Anthony Robinson told Prime Minister Anthony Albanese when he visited on Tuesday, "Where have you been the last week?"

"Overseas, I heard... Your people need you here," he added. 

To him, and many others, this is no different to when Scott Morrison left bushfire residents alone to tackle the Black Summer 2019/20 bushfires - even if his absence was for the APEC and G20 summits, and not a holiday in Hawaii. 

"Not to get off on the wrong foot... but all through the election one of your slogans was (you weren’t) here to hold a hose," he told Albanese. 

"I’m not trying to have a go at you… (but) it’s not the help now, it’s the help in the next six to 12 months I’m most worried about." 

NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet copped it too when he visited last week, with former police officer Peter Jones telling him he'd had a "gutful" with the town's residents "left to their own devices".

On Tuesday both governments tried to set things right. They announced a joint venture to offer immediate $25,000 grants to impacted small businesses and not-for-profits. Those outside the remit are eligible for the one-off $1000 disaster recovery payment. 

But rebuilding is going to be hard. 

As The Sydney Morning Herald reports, most locals aren't insured because flood insurance premiums cost as much as $40,000 a year, and what's happening in Eugowra is being repeated in other centres across the country. 

In the now cut-off town of Moulamein in the NSW Riverina, residents are facing what could be weeks of isolation. Euabalong is also now completely flooded in.

Dozens of flood warnings remain in place across the state, and the State Emergency Service is still responding to hundreds of calls for help daily. 

To those in the dry it might all blur into one disaster, but every single day new families are experiencing the worst day of their lives.

It's the worst flooding in a generation.

The emotional and financial cost is only just beginning. 

If you'd like to help the people of Eugowra, you can donate to their Flood Appeal. 

Image: AAP Image/Lucy Cambourn.