Hundreds of spiders have been filmed crawling into a family’s garage to escape the heavy rain and floodwater in New South Wales, Australia.

Melanie Williams, from the town of Macksville, shared the footage of her neighbours’ garage, where spiders and other bugs were scrambling up walls to reach drier ground.

Ms Williams said her house had not been directly impacted by the floodwater and that all the spiders had “gone back to wherever they came from”.

The footage comes as record rain brought more extreme flooding to Australia’s east coast, forcing 18,000 to flee their homes.

Emergency services in New South Wales fear more than 50,000 people might have to escape the water in the coming days.

In another video, captured by Matt Lovenfosse, thousands of arachnids can be seen on the water’s surface as they try to scuttle to safety.

“All the brown you can see is spiders trying to beat the floodwater,” wrote Mr Lovenfosse in a Facebook post.

Thousands of people have been affected with 40 flood warnings and 20 evacuation orders along the state’s Mid North Coast, and in western Sydney.

A bride left surrounded by floodwater posted a plea on Twitter to help her get to her wedding, she tweeted: “Help me!!! It’s my wedding day and we’re flooded in! We need help to get to Wingham over the flooded creek. Anyone know someone willing to help?”

Update, I made it to the church and married the love of my life! Affinity Helicopters in Port Macquarie came to the rescue and made sure we all got there. This is the bridge that blocked us from making the 5minute drive into town! What a day! #fotherbellwedding #floodwingham pic.twitter.com/u7OlsFsTjQ

Fortunately, Affinity Helicopters in Port Macquarie came to the rescue and ensured Kate Fotheringham reached the wedding venue to marry her groom Wayne Bell – where they posed for photos of a day they won’t forget.

Heavy rain will remain a serious risk on Tuesday for the Mid North Coast, where communities are facing the worst flooding conditions since 1929.

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