The town has been evacuated and its population has joined the other 85,000 people across the state affected by the 108 evacuation orders and 56 warnings.

NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet warned on Wednesday this event was far from over.

“Many people are tired,” he said. “There’s a lot of anguish and despair. But our commitment from a state level and being here with the Commonwealth government today is that we’ll be with you every step of the way.”

Perrottet said additional resources were arriving from interstate on Wednesday to assist the SES.

NSW SES Commissioner Carlene York said that, while conditions eased, it would take several days for the water to begin to recede.

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Commonwealth and state funding for those affected by the floods will become available on Thursday. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said 250 ADF personnel would be available from Thursday in addition to the 100 already playing a role.

Authorities remain concerned for areas around the Hunter and Mid North Coast regions, which experienced the heaviest rainfall on Wednesday. But Weatherzone’s meteorologist Yoska Hernandez said the low pressure system would move off the coast overnight, with showers set to linger for a few days before drier conditions and strong winds prevail.

She added rainy conditions could return over the weekend, but it would be light showers rather than the heavy rainfall totals that have smashed the state this week.

Many areas around Sydney, the Illawarra and Hunter regions have exceeded their monthly rainfall averages. They include Cessnock, which has received 228mm so far – much higher than its 29mm July monthly average; Camden, which has received 232mm in the past five days, 197mm more than its monthly average; and Kiama which has received 326mm more than its monthly average.

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But Darkes Glenbernie Orchard in the Illawarra has recorded almost 730mm of rain in the past six days, significantly higher than the annual average rainfall in London or Copenhagen.

Owner Jo-Anne Fahey said most of her fruit trees were covered in water and she was worried about how much could be salvaged.

It’s the last thing her business needs as she relies heavily on tourists picking their own fruit or buying it straight from her shop. The property, which has been in her husband’s family since 1939, has weathered storms before, but nothing like this.

“This is the most intense rain event in our living memory,” she said. “We’ve had wet years, but nothing as intense as this in one big whack. Everyone expects to get one but then it goes away for some time and we can deal with the damage. But we had only just started to get on top of the work we were behind from the last lot of rain and starting to do repairs of things. Now we are back to square one.”