Watch: Jet boat zooms down flooded streets in Edgecumbe

Incredible footage has emerged of a boat zooming down flood-inundated streets of Edgecumbe.

The footage, titled "Edgecumbe flooding and evacuation by jet boat. Sad day for this little town", was posted on Facebook today by Brandon Crowley.

It shows a film crew surveying the carnage after a stop bank was breached, submerging the township under water.

Streets resemble murky, swift-flowing rivers and cars appear nearly totally submerged beneath the torrent.

"That's where those dogs are Doug," one man says, pointing to a single storey house as the boat floats in its driveway. "Well they were."

"There's s*** everywhere man. My word."

Around 2000 people from 500 homes fled the township this morning after the nearby river burst through the bank and poured into Edgecumbe.

Civil Defence warns the river is likely to remain at present flood levels for 18 hours, and people are unlikely to be able to return to their devastated homes for 72 hours.