By Jessica McSweeney and Riley Walter
More than 20 people have been rescued from floodwaters after a severe thunderstorm drenched Sydney with almost 100 millimetres of rain and caused traffic chaos.
The large weather system passed over the Blue Mountains and western Sydney by late morning and hit the city about midday, with the massive downpours and life-threatening flash-flooding inundating roads and disrupting public transport.
The storm dumped 88.2 millimetres on Horsley Park in western Sydney. More than 53 millimetres drenched Observatory Hill in the city, while 46.2 millimetres were recorded in Penrith.
Roads across Sydney were flooded with knee-high water, including Bridge Road near the Fish Market, at Riverstone in the city’s north-west and Rushcutters Bay in the east.
NSW SES commander Stuart Fisher said 21 people had been rescued from floodwaters across Sydney after becoming trapped in their cars.
He said motorists ignoring repeated warnings to avoid driving in floodwaters was “frustrating”.
“The drivers don’t hear our message, which is do not drive through flooded waters,” Fisher said.
“It doesn’t take a lot to get a car stuck these days, and the cars are very lightweight so it has the potential to move them off the road and into danger.
“It’s not worth putting your life at risk.”
Fixed-line internet customers of TPG, Vodafone, iiNet, Internode and Kogan suffered from a 4.5-hour-long weather-related outage starting about 5.30pm on Monday.
Services began to return to normal just after 10pm AEDT on Monday, some customers reported, while others continued to experience issues.
The storm rolling toward Sydney this morning.Credit: Radar Storm Pro
A TPG spokesperson confirmed the cause of the incident was a storm-related power outage that hit one of its data centres. A subsequent generator failure caused disruption to TPG’s consumer and business customers.
“Connectivity is being gradually restored for customers, although some business platforms continue to be affected. We are working on restoring all services as soon as possible,” the spokesperson said. “We apologise for any inconvenience this has caused customers and thank them for their patience.”
The SES received more than 300 callouts after the storm. More than 550 incidents were reported across NSW overnight Sunday and into Monday.
The storm also left Sydney’s public transport on its knees. Light rail services on the L2 Randwick and L3 Kingsford Line were closed due to flooding. Flooding at Strathfield railway station also led to delays across multiple train lines.
The Bureau of Meteorology is predicting the chance of less severe thunderstorms on Tuesday before conditions ease on Wednesday.
The bureau warned that Gosford, Sydney, Orange, Katoomba, Dubbo and Parkes were of particular concern.
“I think everyone will be copping a bit of weather today,” the bureau’s Helen Reid said.
Early on Monday morning, the storm dumped an extraordinary amount of hail onto Harden, a small town near Cootamundra, leaving it blanketed with a layer of ice. Shops and homes were flooded, windows were smashed and wildlife found injured.
Hail blanketed Harden in regional NSW.Credit: Ashleigh Messner
An animal ambulance was deployed from Sydney to treat multiple wild birds left seriously injured from the hail. The SES responded to more than 120 callouts in the town.
The thunderstorms are forming on a surface trough in a moist, unstable air mass in inland NSW, with an upper trough moving them across the state towards the coast.
with Ben Grubb
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