Sydney weather: Woman killed in floodwaters as rain soaks NSW
A woman has died after she was swept away by flood waters, and a Sydney childcare centre was evacuated on Friday as wild weather lashed NSW.
NSW
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A woman’s body has been discovered after she was swept away in floodwaters in the Snowy Monaro on Friday.
About 2.20am a car with two people inside, a man and a woman, became trapped in at Tuross Rd near Countegany Rd in Tuross.
Emergency services and the SES hurried to the scene following reports the car began sinking, but before they arrived the 37-year-old woman escaped the vehicle and was swept away by rushing water.
Local police and SES volunteers began searching the area nearby, where they found the man a short distance away from the vehicle.
The woman’s body was later found downstream.
It comes as a childcare centre in Leumeah was forced to evacuate after flash flooding inundated the building.
Parents of children at the Leaping Learners early education centre were called to pick up their children this afternoon after childcare workers were unable to keep flood waters at bay.
One childcare worker said they tried to keep the flood waters out using brooms, to no avail.
The SES were called and parents waited anxiously as their children were evacuated out of the flooded building.
All the kids were evacuated safely but the centre and some staff members’ cars were completely flooded.
Heavy rain and hail lashed the city before lunchtime with 21mm of rain reported at Parramatta by 12.30pm.
In the Macarthur region, Kentlyn recorded 48mm of rain in the hour to 11.45am, while in Audley 30mm of rain was recorded in just 30 minutes.
Mogo Wildlife Park on the state’s south coast, which two years ago was battling bushfires, had another fight on its hands as flood waters inundated parts of the park yesterday.
“Two sides of the park border the Tomaga River so when you get rain like this, we just become part of the river,” zookeeper Chad Staples said.
“It’s only the bottom of the park that’s been affected where we have the giraffes, zebras and rhinos.
“We’ve built up high areas for them to shelter but the funny thing is most of them are enjoying the rain.”
âš ï¸ Severe Weather Warning is current, with heavy rainfall & damaging winds set to continue today for parts of #Illawarra & #SouthCoast including #Nowra, #Ulladulla, #BatemansBay, #MoruyaHeads & #Narooma. Monitor radar and warnings closely: https://t.co/2qM1QRn3xE@NSWSESpic.twitter.com/5RMyHaVQlT
— Bureau of Meteorology, New South Wales (@BOM_NSW) December 9, 2021
âš ï¸â›ˆï¸ Severe Thunderstorm Warning issued for #Sydney Metropolitan & parts of the Illawarra. Key concern is heavy rainfall that could lead to #FlashFlooding and dangerous driving conditions. Monitor conditions closely including radar and warnings: https://t.co/2qM1QRn3xE@NSWSESpic.twitter.com/R6toJcqP1a
— Bureau of Meteorology, New South Wales (@BOM_NSW) December 10, 2021
Soaked soil has also created a hazard along the east coast with trees at risk of falling in strong winds.
Head of Operational Climate Services at the Bureau of Meteorology, Dr Andrew Watkins, said those hoping for an end to the rain soon would be disappointed.
“A low pressure trough that has been lingering around the east coast has been drawing moist air off the Tasman Sea and Coral Sea and depositing it as rain over the state,” Dr Watkins said.
“All this is occurring against the background of a La Nina in the Pacific Ocean, a decaying negative Indian Ocean Dipole and even the large ozone hole over Antarctica.
“The outlook is for wetter than average conditions down the east coast until at least the end of summer.”
The prolonged downpour has brought with it a number of other issues, including a boom in the mosquito population.
Associate Professor Cameron Webb from NSW Pathology said the problem would only worsen as summer went on.
“We’re likely to see more mosquitoes and for a longer period of time than usual because they love the warm but they particularly love wet weather,” Dr Webb said.
“Mosquitoes need water so they can complete their development and the more water there is, generally the more mosquitoes there are.
“The temperatures have been pretty mild even though we’ve had a lot of rain so the population hasn’t exploded yet, however as it warms up we’re expecting mosquitoes to become far more in abundance.”
Leo Patterson Ross, the chief executive of the Tenants Union of NSW, said mould was another guaranteed outcome of the rain.
“The problem with mould is it can take a few weeks to come up and when there’s warm weather afterwards, the mould will sprout and spread,” Mr Patterson Ross said.
“We’re expecting after this week we’re going to have more cases of people with that unavoidable mould.”
The rain is also likely to increase time in the garden. Royal Botanic Garden Sydney landscape supervisor Scott Jones said the mowing workload had already increased.
“When there’s a drought the grass slows down but with this rain and hotter conditions it grows really quickly,” Mr Jones said.
“Usually we’d be mowing the lawns once a fortnight but we’ll mow them on a Monday and they’ll need to be done again by the end of the week.”
But the forecast has been another boost for retailers already seeing a pre-Christmas spike.
Harvey Norman chairman Gerry Harvey said a particularly wet quarter had prompted a rush on certain appliances.
“All down the coast where it’s been raining clothes dryers have been through the roof, while dehumidifiers are going strong in a growing category,” Mr Harvey said.
“It’s a big difference to out west where air conditioners are the strongest because we’ve had some hot days over there.”
Originally published as Sydney weather: Woman killed in floodwaters as rain soaks NSW
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