Sydney floods hit Riverstone, Schofields

Evacuation orders have been imposed for “heartbroken” northwest Sydney residents who are again faced with floods in their communities. Read the latest.

Riverstone and surrounding suburbs are bracing for worse floods than February and March.

On Monday, Blacktown SES issued an order for parts of Riverstone to evacuate their homes by 2pm.

Residents living in parts of Riverstone were directed to evacuate their properties at 4.30am on Monday and advised to leave by 7.30am if they live in West Pde, Carlton St, Trevithick St, Creek St, Denmark Rd, Pacer St and Garfield Rd West between Bells Creek and the railway line.

Residents of Richard Ave and Garfield Road East were told to proceed to Garfield Rd East and head towards Windsor Rd by 2pm.

Once the floodwater reaches Windsor, the area will be isolated and authorities warned that residents could be trapped without power, water and other essential services and it could be too dangerous to rescue stranded people.

Castle Hill RSL Club and North Richmond Community Centre at William St are open as evacuation centres but Blacktown Council has not yet converted Blacktown Leisure Centre Stanhope for the same purpose as it did during the March floods.

If required, the council is able to establish an evacuation centre within two hours.

A house near Riverstone Park is in the evacuation zone. Picture: Riverstone Little Athletic Club Facebook page

Riverstone Park has also been severely soaked and patrons are bracing for a more severe impact than March.

“We’re still dealing with the insurance from the last floods,’’ Riverstone Little Athletics president Cassie Gill said.

“We’re told it’s going to be worse.’’

Club volunteers have lifted their equipment to higher ground and disconnected electricity to avoid damage at their homeground, at Garfield Rd West.

But the wild weather means more disruption and likely delays to the start of athletics season for the club’s 208 athletes.

Mrs Gill said the waterlogged fields would mean August registrations would be suspended and the start of the season in September would be delayed by a month if Blacktown Council could not have the ground ready in time.

Riverstone Park’s athletics patrons have had three disruptive seasons. Picture: Riverstone Little Athletics Club Facebook

“It’s becoming a real burden on us, as well as recruiting memberships and our kids are falling behind every year,’’ she said.

“It’s becoming really, really hard for the last three years to run on our surface.

“We started five weeks later last season because of Covid. We were in the Blacktown Council area and we had harder restrictions.

“It’s quite heartbreaking.’’

North West Business Chamber president Sue Lawrence said residents were still recovering from the autumn deluge.

As late as Saturday, the chamber and Riverstone Neighbourhood Centre were dropping off items as part of a flood relief program for those in need from the late autumn disaster.

“They’re saying ‘we’re broken, we can’t do this again’,’’ Mrs Lawrence said.

“We’re nowhere near as bad as Windsor or Richmond but certainly we’re affected.

“Riverstone Creek’s flooded for over 150 years.’’

Riverstone Park is flooded. Picture: Riverstone Little Athletics Facebook page

Parts of the suburb are now known as Angus and have been hit hard, along with Schofields, while new suburbs such as Elara were also warned they might need to evacuate.

Since 2.30pm on Sunday, Blacktown and Parramatta SES units have responded to 32 requests for help, with most being storm related incidents of leaking roofs and trees at risk of falling.

“According to the Bureau of Meteorology, while rainfall levels are expected to ease, significant riverine flooding is still expected,’’ an SES spokesman said.

“The volunteers have been helping the community primarily with sandbagging requests to help them prepare for incidents.

“It is also worth applauding members of the community as there has been a keen uptake in sandbags as the public prepare for floods and storms.’’

Blacktown Council has donated 50,000kg of sand to Mt Druitt SES and staff are on standby to prepare bags at the Rooty Hill depot using the sandbag hopper.

Across the region, the council, which is liasing with the SES, RFS and police “24 hours a day”, has closed about nine roads.

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