Thousands evacuate as Sydney floodwaters approach ROOF height and 200 schools are closed

Thousands in Sydney’s west have been forced out of their homes overnight and flood evacuation orders have been issued for residents on the NSW mid-north coast as wild weather and torrential rain continues to lash much of the state’s east. 

There are 40 flood warnings and 19 evacuation orders in place running from the mid-north coast down to the Illawarra, including western Sydney, with more expected to be declared on Monday. 

The SES is warning the deluge will continue and more evacuations are likely.  There are three key areas of concern – the mid-north coast, the Hawkesbury valley and western NSW.  

There were 1,500 urgent calls for help overnight and 211 schools across the state were closed on Monday. The NSW Department of Education issued a list of the schools, which includes 151 public, 26 independent and 34 catholic. 

Premier Gladys Berejiklian on Monday said 18,000 people have been ordered to evacuate across the state and there have been 3,000 evacuations in the Nepean Hawkesbury region. 

‘We ask everybody who are in those flood areas to please be cautious and listen to the orders, please be ready if you have been asked to be on alert, be sure you are packed and ready to go in case you need to be evacuated at short notice,’ she said.  

Ms Berejiklian said the NSW community is thinking of those currently ‘living in fear and anxiety’.  

‘Some communities battered by the bushfires are now being battered by the floods and deep drought prior to that and I don’t know any time in a state history where we have had these extreme weather conditions in such quick succession in the middle of a pandemic,’ she said. 

‘They are challenging times for NSW but we have also demonstrated our capacity to be resilient.’ 

The premier said there are now up to 38 locations regarded as natural disaster areas and residents in those communities will be able to receive financial assistance. 

Communities along the Hawkesbury River are bracing for once-in-a-generation flooding that could displace thousands of residents and disrupt utilities for months. 

The BOM expects Monday to bring the worst flooding event to the area northwest of Sydney since November 1961 – 60 years ago.

Floodwaters are expected to rise to major levels on Monday morning and inundate places such as Windsor, Pitt Town, North Richmond, Freemans Reach and Colo.

The Hawkesbury is predicted to reach peaks of up to 15 metres and the SES says homes and properties will be flooded, some up to roof height. 

Federal Emergency Management Minister David Littleproud said the situation ‘could get a lot worse’. 

Residents in Kempsey were told by the State Emergency Service to evacuate by midnight on Sunday with major flooding possible along the Macleay River at Kempsey and Smithtown Monday morning.

Evacuation orders are now in place for low lying areas of Kempsey, Macksville, Port Macquarie, the lower Macleay, Wauchope and Rawdon Island, Taree and Wingham.

People are being asked to more possessions above the predicted flood height, take pets, essential items, warm clothes, medicines, insurance documents and valuables with them and stay with family or friends, or head to evacuation centres.

Kempsey recorded 173 mm of rain between 9am Sunday to 4am on Monday, and it’s not letting up.

Heavy rain is likely to lead to flash flooding and will remain a serious risk for the Northern Rivers and Mid-North Coast on Monday and Tuesday, The Bureau of Meteorology warned.

Risks remain for the Hunter and Central Tablelands districts, particularly as catchments are already saturated. 

Overnight, emergency workers conducted 150 more flood rescues and responded to 1,500 calls for help, taking the total so far for the weekend so far to more than 10,000.

There are 19 evacuation orders in place running from the Mid-North Coast down to the Illawarra, including Sydney and western Sydney, with more expected to be declared on Monday.

Emergency Services Minister David Elliott said the NSW government was expected to be able to confirm later on Monday the Australian Defence Force would move in to support the SES.  

‘That will include logistics, obviously, assistance with making sure we make safe our communities,’ he told Nine.

Mr Elliott said the most critical area was the mid-north coast where communities were facing the worst flooding conditions since 1929.

A man died in Sydney on Monday morning following a single vehicle crash at Terrey Hills, in the city’s north. 

Emergency crews were called to Mona Vale Road at about 8.50am, where they found a vehicle had crashed into a tree. 

NSW Police said the male driver – the only occupant of the car – died at the scene. No one else was injured in the crash.

The man is yet to be formally identified. 

A crime scene has been established as officers investigate the circumstances surrounding the crash and whether the wet weather was a contributing factor.  

The car accident occurred during a wet start to the morning in the Harbour City. 

Residents across NSW – especially those in flood-hit areas – have been urged to avoid non-essential travel. 

‘If you need to travel, exercise extreme caution, allow plenty of extra travel time and never drive through flood waters,’ Live Traffic NSW said. 

Prime Minister Scott Morrison said he expected the ADF would be deployed to help with the recovery.

‘These are very, very serious storms and floods,’ he told Sydney radio 2GB.

Over NSW 200 schools will be closed on Monday but with the extreme wet weather continuing, decisions will be made hourly on further closures.

‘Safety has to come first,’ Education Minister Sarah Mitchell said Seven.  

The floods will cut off evacuation routes and cause lasting outages to utilities, the SES said as it urged residents to prepare to evacuate.

‘Extensive outages of water, electricity, sewerage, telecommunications and gas are expected to last many weeks or months,’ the SES said.

Flooding along the Hawkesbury and Nepean rivers comes after the Warragamba Dam spilled over.

Parts of Penrith and other areas along the Nepean were ordered to evacuate on Sunday as NSW battles devastating floods after days of unabated rain.

Scores of people have already been rescued from floodwaters, while prison inmates have been evacuated and more than 100 schools remain shut.

The BOM’s Agata Imielska said the severity of rainfall in greater Sydney could ease on Monday but the Mid-North Coast would continue to be drenched and inland NSW would be pounded by rain.

The NSW northwest slopes and plains are forecast to receive four times more rain in two days than the entire March monthly average.

The federal government’s natural disaster arrangements have been activated for 18 local government areas across NSW.

The one-in-one-hundred year storm has also forced spiders into people’s homes to escape rising floodwaters.  

Melanie Williams watched on in horror as thousands of arachnids climbed onto her fence as waters continued to rise at her Macksville home, in northern NSW, on Saturday.

‘As the water was rising, the letterbox was going under further and further and I could see all these little black things on there and I thought ‘oh my God, they’re spiders,’ she said. 

‘I occasionally see spiders around the place but never anything like that, it was just insane.’

Port Macquarie restaurateur Nathan Tomkins says the past few days have been a nightmare rollercoaster.

After record flooding at the Hastings River over the weekend, Mr Tomkins’ restaurant was inundated with neck-high water.

After surveying the damage on Sunday he says the venture he’s spent 24 years building is in ruins.

‘The water just went right through and just destroyed everything. There is nothing left,’ he told ABC TV on Monday.

‘This is just like a nightmare, it really is. I’ve got so many friends and family members that are just hurting at the moment from all this, who have lost their homes, lost their cars, lost their businesses.’

The nightmare isn’t over yet either, with much of the mid-north coast bracing for more flooding on Monday.

‘I’m feeling like I’m on a roller-coaster. I woke up this morning and I just pinch myself to go, ‘Okay, this is not real’. But it’s real,’ he said. 

SES Superintendent Shane Cribb said Port Macquarie had been hit with more than 800mm of rain and his volunteers had been working 24-hour shifts.

‘I have never seen rainfall like this. I have worked in a number of floods and this is the biggest one I have worked in in my career,’ he told ABC TV.

Floodwaters in Sydney’s west will continue rising on Monday as Warragamba Dam, the city’s biggest, spills enough water to fill Sydney Harbour every 24 hours for a third day in a row, causing swollen rivers to burst their banks.

Those rivers will hit their highest levels in 60 years on Monday morning with moderate to major flood warnings issued for the Hawkesbury, the Nepean, and the Colo, threatening homes in the suburbs of Penrith, North Richmond, Windsor, and Sackville.

The wild weather is not forecast to stop until Wednesday around Sydney and on the mid-north coast, and not until Thursday on the north coast in Byron Bay and south-east Queensland. 

Penrith residents were forced to evacuate on Sunday after the Nepean River rose to 10.05m on Sunday night, just below the major flood level – but higher than during the devastating 1961 floods.

The Nepean River at Menangle Bridge is at 7.28m and 7.73m at Wallacia Weir, with rises possible with forecast rainfall. Major flooding is also occurring around the Colo River in Upper Colo and Putty Road Bridge. 

‘While major flooding is occurring in Sydney’s west it’s also important to be aware this is a large and widespread event,’ the weather bureau warned.

Hundreds of homes have been damaged, including one filmed floating down the Manning River in Taree, but Mr Elliott says it is only a matter of time until lives are lost too.

Hundreds of flood rescues have been conducted by the SES since the weather began last week, and each one brings the state closer to an ‘inevitable fatality’ he said on Sunday.

It comes after police overnight rescued an elderly woman from deep floodwaters on the NSW Central Coast shortly before her car was swept into a river.

Police spotted the half-submerged Hyundai Getz in Wyong while attending to another incident nearby and realised the driver was still inside.

One officer waded out into the waters on foot and was able to free the 80-year-old from the car and walk her out to safety.

The car was then pushed by the fast-flowing waters into the nearby Wyong River. Neither the driver or the officer were injured.

The incident sparked a renewed warning from police urging people not to drive on roads that are submerged by floodwaters.

With the damage bill already estimated to exceed $1billion, much of NSW will cop a similar battering in the next two days with conditions described as dangerous and volatile.

More than 1,500 residents across NSW were evacuated due to life-threatening floods on Sunday while a further 4,000 along the banks of the Nepean River were advised to prepare to leave.

The Bureau of Meteorology issued a severe weather warning for the Northern Rivers, Mid North Coast, Hunter, Upper Western and parts of Central Tablelands, North West Slopes and Plains and Central West Slopes and Plains Forecast Districts. 

Heavy rain will likely lead to flash flooding in the NSW Northern Rivers and mid north coast on Monday. 

Affected areas may include Coffs Harbour, Kempsey, Port Macquarie, Taree, Newcastle, Gosford, Sydney, Katoomba, Wollongong, Tibooburra, Bourke, Cobar and Coonamble.

‘While major flooding is occurring in Sydney’s west it’s also important to be aware this is a large & widespread event. Western NSW will see increased rain from Monday & many areas will see more rain on Tuesday,’ the Bureau of Meteorology tweeted.

Port Macquarie residents have been warned a ‘second wave’ of major flooding is on its way and say ‘we’re not out of the woods yet’.

Incredible satellite images have captured transformation widespread flooding has already caused in Port Macquarie and Taree as new alerts were issued for the Hastings and Manning Rivers on Sunday night.

Regions south of Sydney will also cop a drenching where Goulburn faces potential flooding as water spills continues to spill  from Warragamba Dam and flows down the Nepean River. 

Bureau of Meteorology forecaster Jonathan How said ‘relentless rainfall’ will lash parts of Sydney and eastern NSW until at least Tuesday. 

‘This is a dynamic situation, so check for flood warning updates regularly,’ he warned. 

Rain is forecast to persist through Monday as a stubborn coastal trough lingers over NSW, and severe thunderstorms are also likely to hit northern inland NSW.

The two weather systems will ‘collide’ on Monday night, Mr How said, causing a likely ‘multi-state rain band’.   

Rising floodwaters in Sydney’s west and north-west are now higher than the catastrophic 1961 flood, with residents of parts of Penrith told to leave their homes by 9pm before floods are expected to peak early Monday. 

Further evacuation warnings were issued for the western Sydney suburbs of Eastern Creek, Stonecutters Creek and Marsden Park, where residents were told to prepare to leave their homes by 3am.

Residents of parts of Wilberforce north of the Hawkesbury were told to be ready to evacuate by 9am on Monday. 

The catastrophic November 1961 floods occurred soon after Warragamba Dam was built, where the Hawkesbury River reached around 14.5m above normal river height at Windsor.

But the largest flood since European settlement was in June 1867 where the river reached 19m above normal river height.

A severe weather remains in place for much of the NSW coast all the way up to Queensland for life-threatening flash-flooding with 137 schools closed and workers urged to stay home on Monday. 

Queensland motorists are being urged to avoid floodwaters, with the possibility of more heavy downpours in the state’s southeast.

The Queensland Fire and Emergency Service received more than 300 calls for assistance on Sunday as heavy rain caused a number of Gold Coast rivers to break their banks.

The Bureau of Meteorology says an emergency flood alert for the Currumbin, Tallebudgera and Mudgeeraba catchments has been cancelled but the risk remains.

‘The threat of widespread heavy rain has eased in southeast Queensland but the potential for isolated heavy falls with thunderstorms still exists,’ the bureau said in an alert on Monday.

‘The situation will continue to be monitored and further warnings will be issued if necessary.’

Water was still washing over a number of river crossings, particularly along the Coomera River at the northern end of the coast, on Monday morning.

Queensland Emergency Services Minister Mark Ryan urged people to heed warnings after a number of drivers became caught in floodwaters.

‘It is imperative that people stay abreast of the weather warnings and also that everyone take a very cautious approach when driving,’ he said.

‘Severe storms are dumping heavy falls, leading to flash flooding.

‘We all have a responsibility to make good decisions on the road to keep other drivers and ourselves safe but that is especially the case during extreme weather events.

‘If it’s flooded forget it.’

Gold Coast City Council has opened sandbagging stations at nearby Pimpama, Burleigh Heads and further south at Bilinga.

‘This weather event will hang around for the next three days,’ QFES co-ordinator Brian Cox told Nine on Monday.

‘The ground is already saturated so the risk of flooding is quite high.’

The Sunshine Coast is also forecast to see more than 150mm of rain in the next two days on top of the very intense storm activity over the weekend in the state’s east.

Bulk water suply authority Seqwater advised that the Poona Dam is already spilling into the Maroochy River on the Sunshine Coast on Monday morning.

‘If you are downstream of the dam, please avoid potential hazards such as fast flowing or deep water near waterways and floodplains,’ it said in an alert.

‘These hazards potentially threaten the safety of you and your property.’

The company says the Leslie Harrison Dam at Tingalpa, on Brisbane’s bayside, has also started spilling.

Late on Sunday afternoon, the NSW State Emergency Service declared western parts of Penrith as a high danger area where some properties have already been inundated with water. 

Evacuees were urged to bring drinking water and food with them and relocate personal possessions to a safe place. The Nepean River is expected to peak around 10.4m at midnight on Monday.

Penrith Panthers NRL coach Ivan Cleary was among the residents forced to evacuate on Sunday night.

He has been living in a Ladbury Avenue home owned by his son, Panthers halfback Nathan Cleary while renovating his own home on Sydney’s northern beaches, the Daily Telegraph reported. 

The Panthers’ preparation for Thursday night’s grand final rematch against Melbourne Storm was also thrown into chaos with their training grounds at the $22m Panthers Academy complex in Mulgoa under threat from flooding.

Inmates at the Emu Plains and nearby Amber Laurel Correctional Centres have also being evacuated, Corrective Services has confirmed. 

The rain will persist on Monday while severe thunderstorms are forecast for northern inland NSW.

A  tropical low over northern WA and a coastal trough off NSW are expected to collide on Monday night, sparking a ‘multi-state rain band’. 

‘This could cause further river rises, so it’s important to stay vigilant as conditions can change quickly,’ Mr How said.

‘Rain and floods are not over yet!’  

Ms Berejiklian held an emergency conference on Sunday to beg residents to play it safe and reiterate how ‘serious and severe this weather is’.

She said the NSW mid-north coast, which was worst hit on Saturday and overnight, was enduring a once-in-a-century storm, while regions in western Sydney haven’t seen rainfall this severe in 50 years. 

‘We were hoping it would only be a one in 20-year event. It looks like it will actually be a one in 50-year event,’ Ms Berejiklian said of conditions in the Hawkesbury Valley on Sunday.    

Employees were encouraged to work from home in an attempt to curb any unnecessary road travel and avoid an ‘inevitable fatality’.

The federal and state governments on Sunday morning announced 16 national disaster declarations from Coffs Harbour and Grafton areas in northern NSW into the west to Cessnock and Dungog, and to the Central Coast. 

The regions include Bellingen, Clarence Valley, Kempsey, Lake Macquarie City, Nambucca Valley, Port Macquarie-Hastings and Tenterfield. 

Relief funding can now start to be funnelled into local council areas for recovery efforts from the catastrophic rainfall. 

Queensland, South Australia and Victoria have all deployed resources to New South Wales to help crews already on the ground.  

Source: DailyMail AU