Emergency services minister says ‘situation is going to worsen’ overnight with damaging rain and winds
Weather maps: which parts of state are being hit by flooding and rain – and what areas are at risk?
‘Everyone’s just a bit over the weather’: NSW residents barely back on their feet brace for fresh floods – again
Get ourbreaking news email,free appordaily news podcast
Destructive winds and heavy rain have left tens of thousands inNew South Waleswithout power and forced some Central Coast residents to evacuate their homes as authorities warned conditions will “deteriorate even further”.
Some areas received a month’s worth of rain in one day while others recorded winds above 100km/h on Tuesday asa vigorous coastal lowcontinued to intensify late in the day. The Bureau of Meteorology said winds with gusts in excess of 125km/h were possible along the coastal fringe of the Illawarra and South Coast on Tuesday evening.
Communities from Jervis Bay to Batemans Bay on the south coast were urged to stay indoors just after 5pm on Tuesday due to heavy rainfall and damaging and destructive winds, while other areas including parts of Sydney faced flood warnings.
As of 7pm, about 30,000 Ausgrid customers remained without power, according to the company, which distributes electricity to about 1.8 million customers inSydney, the Central Coast and the Hunter.
Ausgrid said the worst affected areas were the Central Coast and the Hunter Region, where 15,500 and 13,000 homes had lost power respectively. Emergency crews would work through through the night to restore power, the company said.
Earlier the SES issued a general warning for people to stay indoors. As of 7.30pm, people in Sydney were advised to monitor weather conditions and stay across any hazards as the weather system tracked south.
A spokesperson for the SES said it had responded to more than 1,300 calls for assistance between 7pm on Monday and 7pm on Tuesday. Some ferries and trains were suspended on Tuesday in NSW while commuters in Sydney faced heavy traffic.
The NSW State Emergency Service (SES) deputy commissioner, Debbie Platz, told ABC News the conditions along the east coast were “very dangerous” and would “deteriorate even further overnight”.
Platz said wild weather had knocked over trees and powerlines, leading to significant crashes on the road.
Just before 4pm on Tuesday, the SES directed people living in parts of the Central Coast to evacuate immediately due to the threat of dangerous waves causing damage to buildings amid coastal erosion caused by storm activity.
People in propertiesalong Hutton Roadat the north entrance of the Central Coast and at Wamberal on parts ofOcean View Drive, which backs on to Wamberal Beach, andPacific Streetwere told to evacuate.
The community of Wamberal Beach, 90km north of Sydney,has been struggling with coastal erosion for years, with division over whether or not the council should install a sea wall in an effort to protect the properties on the shoreline.
The system was expected to be “more intense and much sharper” than the weather event that caused flooding across the Hunter region and mid-north coast in May, the SES northern zone commander, Ch Supt Andrew Cribb, said.
“We’re not out of the woods yet,” he told reporters on Tuesday.
The NSW emergency services minister, Jihad Dib, said the “complex and large system” stretched from the mid-north coast down to Bega.
“It may seem pretty bad [now], but the terrible thing is that the situation is going to worsen over the course of the next 24 hours, particularly later this afternoon and into the evening [and] tomorrow,” Dib told reporters on Tuesday. “So once again, we’re asking people to be as prepared as they possibly can be.”
The rapidly deepening system reached the NSW coast and was slowly moving southwards. Widespread rainfall totals of 50mm-150mm were likely, the SES warned, with isolated intense falls above 200mm in 24 hours, “which will cause flash flooding”.
The SES had deployed vehicles, helicopters and personnel to areas likely to be heavily affected.
The service had responded to more than 900 incidents since Monday morning and had received more than 1,700 calls to the state operations centre, a spokesperson said.
“We’re seeing a lot of debris and trees down, requests for sandbags and also leaking roofs,” they said.
Sign up for Guardian Australia’s breaking news email
The weather bureau had classified the system as a “vigorous coastal low” – not an “east coast low” or “bomb cyclone”, as some reported.
Sign up toBreaking News Australia
Get the most important news as it breaks
Helen Reid, a bureau meteorologist, said the weather system was more mobile than an east coast low and there were differences in physical characteristics, duration and moisture.
A severe weather warning was in place for metropolitan Sydney and the Illawarra, along with parts of the mid-north coast, the Hunter, south coast, central tablelands, southern tablelands, northern tablelands and northern rivers forecast districts.
The mid-north coast region was an area of concern for emergency services because the soil was still saturated from the May floods.
Reid said the wind and rain were likely to increase into Tuesday afternoon and overnight.
With the rain continuing, some places along the coast could record more than 100mm and “even a couple that might get up to the 200mm mark”, Reid said.
Several places received a month’s worth of rain. By 7.30am on Tuesday, Jervis Bay had recorded 109mm, Currarong 85mm and Williamtown 70mm. Several places in the northern rivers had already had 40mm of rainfall, she said.
The bureau was also warning of destructive winds averaging 60-70km/h, with peak gusts of up to 125km/h possible.
By Tuesday mid-morning, wind speeds of 113km/h were recorded at Wattamolla, south of Sydney.
Warragamba Dam was 98% full and was expected to spill in the coming days based on forecast rainfall, WaterNSW said in a social media post.
Transport for NSW urged public transport users, motorists and boaters to be prepared.
A spokesperson for Sydney airport said flight schedules could be affected. “We recommend passengers check with their airline regarding the status of their flight.”
Airservices Australia said aircraft movements had been reduced on Tuesday morning and it was working to manage the impact of severe weather conditions in Sydney.
The SES urged people to be vigilant.
“We’ve been asking people to prepare their homes and properties since last week and now it really is too late to be outside in the weather,” a spokesperson said.
– with Australian Associated Press
