Up To 20" Of Rain In New South Wales; Thousands Evacuated In & Around Sydney
Emergency services rescued 20 people and evacuated thousands from rising flood waters across New South Wales overnight as the state braced for another day of heavy rain and wild weather. The east coast low that caused much of the flooding was weakening, but heavy rainfall was still slated for Sydney, with the Bureau of Meteorology forecasting up to 100mm again on Monday morning, before conditions eased during the afternoon and evening.
Thousands of residents were forced to evacuate overnight and almost 70 evacuation orders were active by the morning, including new evacuation orders issued since midnight for parts of the Lower Hawkesbury downstream of Wiseman’s Ferry, parts of Ebenezer, Riverstone, Pitt Town, Agnes Banks lowlands, south Maroota West, lower Portland and the northern and central parts of Yarramundi.
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The worst of the flooding was reported at Hawkesbury-Nepean area, to Sydney’s west and north, but the Illawarra, Bathurst, Blue Mountains, Hunter and Central Coast remained areas of concern for authorities. The NSW State Emergency Services said it performed 20 rescues overnight. Most of those rescues involved helping people who had driven into flood waters, something the SES described as “very unfortunate”.
Other residents were leaving it too late to evacuate, the SES said, and becoming stranded in their homes by rapidly rising rivers or flood waters. Vision showed SES officers wading through fast-moving waters and scaling roofs to help affected residents.
Ashley Sullivan, SES deputy state duty commander, said his volunteers had responded to almost 3,500 requests for assistance since the flood event began. About 400 of those requests for assistance were made on Sunday night alone.
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https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2022/jul/04/nsw-floods-thousands-evacuated-from-rising-waters-as-sydney-braces-for-more-wild-weather