‘We got the dogs, the bird, the cat ...’

With water lapping at her front door step, Deb Bulgin was getting ready to leave her home yesterday.

Deb Bulgin with her son Abe in their front yard at Narrabeen on Sydney’s northern beaches yesterday. Picture: Hollie Adams

With water lapping at her front door step and the waters of nearby Narrabeen Lake rising fast, Deb Bulgin was getting ready to leave her home.

After a night of intense rain, she woke to find floodwater seeping on to her street. By lunchtime, her front yard was submerged.

Earlier in the day, State Emerg­ency Service officers started doorknocking Narrabeen residents, whose northern beachside suburb was one of the worst-hit by the ­unrelenting east coast storms that hammered the state over the weekend. About 2pm, the SES officers came for Ms Bulgin.

“The most important things are the photos of the kids, so we will take them. What else can you do?” she told The Australian.

Many residents were given 30 minutes to leave, escorted by SES officers in inflatable boats. “All of a sudden the water started coming up,” Ms Bulgin said. “It was pretty bad. We got the dogs, the bird, the cat: you are just trying to grab everything you think you need ... that’s how quickly it came.”

With flood warnings across Sydney’s northern beaches yesterday, evacuation centres were set up at the Pittwater RSL, Harbord Diggers Club and other nearby community centres.

Residents from North Narrabeen Caravan Park were among the first evacuated. There was a scramble for the sandbags being handed out at the local surf club.

Paddle boarders and kayakers rowed through the main streets, with surfboards and inflatable boats another popular mode of transport.

Huge swells engulfed Narrabeen and Collaroy beaches, caused by 100km/h winds that caused some of the worst beach erosion in the state in 40 years, ­littering the sand with debris, broken branches and vegetation.

Ms Bulgin, who with her son Abe, 20, went to stay with a nearby friend, said yesterday evening she didn’t know when she would ­return home. “We just have to wait until morning and see.”

At Narrabeen Surf Club, parents huddled together waiting for their children to arrive after a camp at the Sydney Academy of Sport was evacuated from the floodprone Wakehurst Parkway yesterday morning. The camp’s coaches, police and the SES worked side by side to get the 79 youngsters to safety, using inflatable rescue boats.