NSW storm: Monster weather wreaks havoc down entire east coast
ROLLING COVERAGE: Police divers are on the scene after a person drowned when their car sunk in floodwaters at Leppington in Sydney’s southwest. It comes after an elderly man was found dead in a car swept away by flood waters in the Southern Highlands.
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- GALLERY: STORMAGEDDON STRIKES NSW
- BEACHFRONT HOMES ON BRINK OF COLLAPSE
- MAJOR DELAYS AS SYDNEY RECOVERS FROM STORM
POLICE divers are on the scene after a person drowned when their car sunk in floodwaters in Sydney’s southwest.
The body was found in the ute at Anthong Rd in Leppington, outside of Camden.
It comes after an elderly man was found dead in a car swept away by flood waters in the Southern Highlands.
The car was seen in flood waters with its hazard lights on last night in Bowral and was found at 8.30am this morning behind Bowral Swimming Pool.
A search for the car was started last night after the car was spotted in Mittagong Creek.
Meanwhole the body of a 37-year-old man was found in the Cotter River near Canberra. It is believed he was swept away in floodwaters as the east coast low moves south.
In a statement, ACT Police said the fast moving, rising water made rescue efforts impossible.
MASSIVE CLEAN-UP UNDERWAY
Sydney, meanwhile, is facing a lengthy clean-up after the one of the larest-scale storms in recent decades battered the coast with torrential rain and wild winds.
Photographs from inside Coogee Surf Club reveal the extent of the damage the building sustained when massive waves of up to eight metres smashed the coast line.
This morning debris could be seen strewn across the foreshore after the storm surge ripped up handrails, destroyed steps and moved stone blocks
“The surf club building itself seems to have had its foundations damaged and the stone wall at the front has been destroyed,” the club’s captain, Tass Karozis told Fairfax Media.
SES crews have arrived at Coogee... Plenty of damage to the beach front and surf club #MRNews #coogee pic.twitter.com/KMezIXpUFm
— Natalie Peters (@nataliejpeters) June 5, 2016
“The waves that are coming in are probably eight metres in height. All the ground floor windows, the storm surge just broke them in, so we’ve lost all our gear downstairs. The storm surge is just pummelling it. The boatshed where we store all our equipment has been destroyed,” Mr Karozis said.
“I’ve never seen anything like that. I was talking to a couple of old blokes and they said ‘74 was a big year, but not like this.”
FLOODWATERS RISE
SES crews have rushed to Camden, in Sydney’s west, as rising flood waters threaten several homes.
Floodwaters have risen to almost roof height in some low lying areas around Camden and several schools have been closed in the region.
The Department of Education has closed Picton High School and Wallacia Public School due to the severe weather.
North west of Sydney, authorities have made the decision to close the North Richmond Bridge before it goes under.
THOUSANDS EVACUATED
MORE than a thousand people were evacuated from their homes last night as one of the largest-scale storms in recent decades continues to batter the coast with torrential rain and wild winds.
Rainfalls in the hundreds of millimetres in just two days combined with a king tide at 8.30pm and massive 7m swell sent torrents of water flooding across the state.
To date the SES has received about 9000 calls for help and conducted 270 flood rescues. Up to 3000 homes are still awaiting help.
Residents were being evacuated across the city — at Narrabeen in the north and around the Georges and Nepean rivers in the south and west — as water continued to rise last night.
Authorities remain concerned about a number of swollen rivers that had “significant amounts of water in them”, particularly the Nepean and the Hawkesbury out of Sydney.
At least 300 people were told to leave their homes in the low-lying areas of Lansvale last night with the SES having issued an evacuation order.
Over 700 people in Narrabeen have been affected by floodwaters followed by Chipping Norton with more than 450.
There are currently moderate levels of flooding in the Liverpool area while water levels at Picnic Point are beginning to fall from a peak of 4.27m with minor flooding at Woronora River.
The weather system hung over Sydney longer than expected, dumping more water into the Picton and Wollondilly area. Residents living in the Richmond Lowlands and Pitt Town are being told to use caution as “minor flooding” could affect them this morning.
Evacuation orders are still in place for North Lismore, Chipping Norton, Milperra and Lansvale. Emergency crews are also keeping an eye out in the areas of Bowral and Liverpool area.
SES spokesperson, Andrew Richards urged people to check public transport timetables as well as checking closures on roads.
“Check the Transport NSW websites for public transport,” he said.
“We also encourage people living on the Hawkesbury River to check the low level bridge closures and look a whether schools will be open for the day.”
Two schools have been closed for the day, which are Narrabeen Lakes Public School and The Rivers Secondary College Richmond River High Campus.
Massive, dangerous waves are expected to smash the state’s coast again today, with the Bureau of Meteorology saying the south will likely have another day of foul weather on Monday.
The brunt of the storm is yet to hit the Illawarra region, which has in parts already copped 154mm of rain.
As the low-pressure system moves south it is expected to dump another 100mm on the area and the terrible weather won’t leave the area until Monday evening, the weather bureau predicts.
There is a major flood warning for people living in the south coast area of Bega River as the East. Up to 350mm of rain has fallen in the past two days across the Bega River Valley.
Major flooding is also expected around Menangle on Monday as the extensive downpour is channelled into the Nepean River.
SYDNEY’S NORTHERN BEACHES BATTERED
Large swells caused major damage at Collaroy/Narrabeen with a number of home teetering on the edge this morning.
The rear of the Beach Club Hotel at Collaroy sustained major damage after being battered by huge waves while homes backing onto the beach were washed away as well as a large inground pool.
The view above Collaroy this morning @7NewsSydney pic.twitter.com/Wbjwei4kcs
— Jason Morrison (@JasonMorrisonAU) June 6, 2016
The University of NSW’s Dr Mitchell Harley said they had not seen such conditions since the 1970s, “The way it’s coming in from a north easterly direction it’s hitting parts of the beach that don’t normally experience this kind of thing,” he said.
“In terms of coastal erosion, it’s particularly bad for Narrabeen.”
SYDNEY BEARS THE BRUNT
Much of the weekend’s rain was focussed on Sydney which was “seeing some of the heaviest totals” of falls, a weather bureau spokesman said.
At the peak of the storm, Wooli on the north coast recorded an incredible 468mm of rain in the 24 hours to 9am on Sunday — the most rain in a single June day anywhere in NSW since 1950.
Ingleburn in southwest Sydney recorded 204mm in the same period, and a total of 364mm by 10pm yesterday.
“It’s about five or six years since any suburb in Sydney has had 200mm in a day, any time of the year,” Weatherwatch meteorologist Don White said.
The SES — which had called in all resources over the weekend — was warning people in affected areas to pack medicines, important documents and several days worth of clothes and leave as early as possible. “Do not delay your evacuation,” it warned. “You could become trapped and need rescue.”
Motorists, meanwhile, continue to ignore warning and are driving through floodwater resulting in dozens of rescues.
“You wouldn’t walk into a bushfire so why would you drive into floodwaters?” Emergency Services Minister David Elliott said.
SES crews took to boats to rescue one person from a car which was swept into floodwaters at Leppington about 6pm, while a Rural Fire Service truck had to be abandoned after getting stuck during a rescue at Lansvale about 10.30pm.
The RFS had 580 Rural Fire Service volunteers on the ground alongside the SES, police, Fire and Rescue NSW, ambulance paramedics and hundreds more volunteers.
“We have been very busy,” FRNSW commissioner Greg Mullins said. “There have been times this weekend when every single crew within the greater Sydney area was deployed.”
Parts of Woronora were also issued evacuation orders about 8.30pm, while at North Narrabeen people were evacuated from their homes, caravan park and the nearby Sydney Academy of Sport and Recreation.
“The heavy rainfall in last 24 hours is starting to make its way down the river systems and affect low lying areas,” SES spokesman Andrew Richards said.
“We’re expecting to have some flood water downstream from the Nepean River, it often flows into the Hawkesbury or downstream and we’re going to see the likely closure of low-lying bridges on the Hawkesbury River.”
Mr Richards said the focus was shifting further south as waters continued to flow.
“We’ll be keeping an eye on the south coast and Illawarra regions, in particular the coastal lagoons and also river mouths of the Shoalhaven River,” he said.
“As water flows downstream and out to sea the king tide holds the water up in the mouths and can cause localised flooding in low-lying areas.”
Areas under threat into this morning would be Shoalhaven Heads, St Georges Basin, Sussex Inlet as well as Ulladulla and Milton, he said.
Across Sydney and beyond, the downpour brought trees crashing onto homes, flooded hundreds of streets and left the state’s roads and transport system in chaos.
Efforts to batten down storm-damaged homes were hampered by winds whipping up to 125km/h.
At Sydney Airport commuters faced hours of delays after the wind and rain forced the closure of all but one runway and the cancellation of some domestic flights.
Trains services were also thrown into chaos thanks to flooding, landslips and trees and other debris on tracks.
The massive swell, with one wave recorded at 12m at Botany Bay early yesterday, and king tide were also causing major erosion problems across large stretches.
But Mr White said a reprieve from the horror conditions was likely today. “The rainfall is going to ease off rapidly,” he said.
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