Singleton area controller Simon Merrick said he couldn’t be more proud of their efforts and their skills in the trying conditions.

“It’s been a huge eight days where at any given day there were 31 volunteers in action and they were flat out,” he said.

“A huge thank you must also go to their employers who have been flexible and allowed them to do their SES work.”

Local crews spread throughout the Hunter, in the first three days, while swift water technicians went to Dungog, Maitland and Raymond Terrance.

A total of four flood boats were committed to running supplies and providing assistance to those trapped at Gillieston Heights. 

Support was also offered to Lake Macquarie, Cooranbong and Newcastle who were inundated with calls for assistance.

While Singleton wasn’t hit as hard as other areas, the SES were still required to perform 44 tasks here and had to be vigilant about rising waters especially at the Wollombi Brook at Bulga.

A flood boat team was sent to Bulga before the bridge was impassable at about 5pm, in case of a medical emergency. 

Mr Merrick said the SES had a lot of support from council workers and police who helped set up road blocks on unsafe roads and causeways and provided sandbags.

“Residents in Singleton were definitely more sensible than others when it came to driving through flood water,” he said.

“Outside of Singleton there were 160 requests for flood rescues.

“This is disappointing.”

The Hunter alone had 7109 requests for assistance while the state on a whole had about 22000 calls to the SES.

Help has been coming from other states from across Australia.

A 49-person team from Queensland arrived this week and is based at the Singleton Army Base.

More threatening weather is slated to hit the region this weekend and the arrival of new SES members is hoped to give Hunter members a rest from their tireless work.