First taste of wild weekend weather wreaks havoc

Residents along the majority of Australia’s east coast are bracing for more flooding rains and strong winds over the next 48 hours.

Sydney residents have been warned to stay inside ahead of more wild weather in the city. Picture: David Swift

Residents of a western Sydney suburb have been told to be ready to evacuate as much of the ­nation’s east coast prepared for a weekend of wild weather with the potential for flooding.

The NSW State Emergency Service on Friday issued an evacuation alert for parts of Chipping Norton, with residents of seven streets told to be alert for flooding along the Georges River.

Some regions of Sydney and regional NSW could receive as much as 300mm of rain by Sunday after a drenching on Friday. There was flash flooding in the inner city and some suburbs.

The flood-prone town of Lismore in northern NSW appeared to have avoided the worst, with the Wilson River seeming to have peaked in the early hours of Friday, but a local farmer needed to be rescued after his vehicle ­became submerged.

The rare, slow-moving ­weather system spanning 1600km from Queensland to Victoria, dubbed a Black Nor’easter, was being strengthened by easterly winds off the Pacific Ocean on Friday, with the Bureau of Meteorology issuing warnings of heavy rain from the NSW Central Coast south to Bega, and as far inland as Oberon.

Bureau meteorologist Angus Hines said localised falls of 100mm to 200mm were likely through the Greater Sydney ­region by Sunday, but some areas of the Illawarra could see more than 300mm.

“Through this region we’re looking at heavy to locally ­intense rainfall,” Mr Hines said. “The heaviest rain is likely to occur around the Illawarra ­escarpment and maybe inland parts of the Greater Sydney region as well.”

In Queensland, the bureau warned of possible heavy falls through the Darling Downs and parts of Maranoa and Warrego into Saturday, with the rain to move to the state’s southeast corner over the weekend.

One hundred flights to and from Sydney Airport’s domestic terminal were cancelled or ­delayed on Friday morning due to strong winds. The airport was ­operating on one runway on Friday evening.

The city’s train network was also compromised after rain damaged equipment at Redfern.

Other airports were keeping a watch on the situation, with the Sydney cancellations creating a knock-on effect across the ­country.

Melbourne Airport reported some disruption to flights and Brisbane reported six cancel­lations out of 76 services to and from Sydney.

NSW Premier Chris Minns warned that Sydney’s Warra­gamba Dam, which supplies the majority of the city’s drinking water, was expected to overflow by Monday.

“We require about 90mm of rain to fill (the dam, and) we’re ­expecting 100mm to 150mm of rainfall over that catchment as a result of this event,” he said.

While NSW and Victoria will see some relief from Sunday as the stormfront moves towards Tasmania, the tail of the system is ­expected to continue dumping rain on southeast Queensland.

Additional reporting: James Dowling