NSW floods: towns prepare for return of rain bomb

Communities across NSW trying to clean-up after major flooding last week are bracing for more damage and rising water today.

Communities who have been plunged into crisis by the NSW flood disaster are bracing for D-Day with authorities forecasting a horror day of rain in already saturated catchments before conditions finally ease.

The Bureau of Meteorology is urging residents from the Central Coast to the Illawarra, Blue Mountains, Shoalhaven and Sydney Metropolitan to batten down the hatches and prepare for the worst today with forecast falls of up to 200mm triggering a renewed flood risk.

“Of particular concern are the already saturated catchments we have from the Hunter all the way down to the Hawkesbury-Nepean and even into the Shoalhaven and Wollongong areas,” Bureau of Meteorology forecaster Dean Narramore said.

Residents packing food hampers in Wisemans Ferry, which was devastated by flooding on Monday.

This includes the residents of Camden, who face an anxious wait after being rushed out of their homes and into evacuation centres as floodwaters rose rapidly on Monday afternoon.

In other parts of the state from the Mid North Coast to the south coast, communities remain on high alert with a flood watch still current.

“(The flooding) could be worse than what we saw last week and similar to what we saw in March last year,” Mr Narramore said.

In south west Sydney, cars were submerged, roads closed, parking lots underwater and shops forced to close as flash flooding wreaked havoc on Monday evening.

The south west has received as much as 70mm with flooding seen at Chipping Norton and Milperra.

Footage of the flooding on the Police in the Area Facebook page showed a taxi submerged up to the drivers windshield at Milperra, manhole covers burst open on major roads and convenience stores forced to close to stop water gushing in.

“Same spot where I was last week!!! But this is way worse,” Maribelle Hourani wrote under the video of the submerged taxi.

As the scale of devastation becomes apparent, residents in flood zones were on Monday sandbagging their homes, with SES Commissioner Carlene York telling people to prepare to evacuate.

SES crews conduct resupply and rescue to communities around Wisemans Ferry.

“What will happen in this event is there is a chance of riverine flooding and severe flooding and flash flooding and that might mean that you cannot get quickly away from your home so listen to our warnings for those areas,” she said.

Locals in Wisemans Ferry were on Monday cut off from town and forced to flee to higher ground as torrents of water streamed into homes.

After being forced to leave his home on Monday, resident Scott Edgenton fears what the worsening conditions will mean for his family – and the community.

“We’re just hoping it doesn’t go up too much more. It was an island a couple of days ago, so you could only go over by a canoe or a tinny,” he said.

Monitor warnings and check weather forecasts over the coming days as severe thunderstorms are possible with heavy rainfall and damaging winds which could cause flash flooding.
Know your weather, know your risk.
Warnings: https://t.co/Hc1xqNjYOp
Forecasts: https://t.co/uUZhGUDWhmpic.twitter.com/Ku0qKXaknw

— Bureau of Meteorology, New South Wales (@BOM_NSW) March 7, 2022

Residents of Sydney and the Blue Mountains were also told to be on the lookout for potentially deadly landslides.

Fire and Rescue New South Wales crews dealt with multiple instances where shifting mud and earth created serious risk. A number of those were in streets near the Nepean River in Emu Heights, while another major incident blocked Katoomba’s Gang Gang St in both directions earlier on Monday.

Footage captured the landslide consuming a large part of the roadway as tonnes of earth, rock and vegetation became dislodged from the hillside.

Conditions were starting to improve in the state’s Northern Rivers, where thousands of ADF personnel will be deployed to assist with the SES and Rural Fire Service clean-up and recovery on Tuesday.

Commissioner York said authorities had completed over 4000 damage assessments on houses in the area, with more than 2000 of those declared uninhabitable.

The area near Brigitte Bailey's property at Wisemans Ferry. Picture: Brigitte Bailey

Federal Member for Macquarie Susan Templeman said the Blue Mountains and Hawkesbury community had rallied together, hopeful milder conditions later in the week would assist recovery efforts.

“People know we are in for a pretty big belting and I don’t think they can be more prepared than they are,” she said. “The community is unflailingly resilient. The people finding it most difficult are those already flooded and wanting to do the clean-up but don’t have the help they need.”

The bureau is expecting the severe weather conditions to ease from Wednesday, with showers forecast for the rest of the week, giving flood-ravaged communities a much-needed reprieve.

Scott Edgenton with three-year-old son Axel and partner Brigitte Bailey had to leave their property and rush to higher grounds to stay with friends on Monday.

Mr Edgenton said their house was like “an island” a few days ago due to the surrounded property being flooded.

“We’re just hoping it doesn’t go up too much more. It was an island a couple of days ago, so you could only go over by a canoe or a tinny” Scott said.

“It’s a bit crazy.”

He said he was worried about the rain forecasted to drop on the area in the next few of days and how it would affect his home.

SES crews conducting resupply and rescue to communities in the Wisemans Ferry area.

“The problem is there more rain to come. We’re on four acres, there’s a lot of debris caught up in the fences,” he said.

“We’ve tried to put everything up on mill crates on the floor. Last year we lost fridges and washing machines. It’s an endless process of trying to do it.”

Alex Tucker was pregnant with little Fisher Aquilina during last years floods in March and gave birth to her the day after evacuating.

She had to vacate her property again this year with her two kids Fisher and Byron due to rising flood waters, and was coming back to town to collect supplies.

“I left Thursday last week and then I came back Saturday and then I left again,” she said.

“The roads are insane. I think we got most of our stuff out.”

Originally published as NSW floods: towns prepare for return of rain bomb