A group of women took refuge from a low-lying flood in a rural village, chatting and drinking warm cups of tea and coffee on a verandah under blue skies.

Just 25 minutes later, Anne South heard her daughter scream as a torrent of water suddenly smashed a glass door at their home in Eugowra, in central western NSW, on the morning of November 14, 2022.

Within moments Ms South, her daughter and six-day-old granddaughter were desperately fighting for their lives as a swirling, roaring "inland tsunami" engulfed them.

"It was coming over the tops of trees, it was terrifying," Ms South told a coronial inquest examining the floods at Orange courthouse on Tuesday.

"It filled the sky as it was coming along, I was looking at it and thinking, 'I've got to run'."

Inside the house minutes later, Ms

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