Northern NSW residents evacuated as Sydney braces for ‘significant flooding’

Hundreds of stranded residents have been rescued from their homes and cars in NSW, as a “life-threatening” downpour that has triggered record-breaking floods heads to Sydney.

Rainfall and flood records are tumbling in NSW as greater Sydney braces for the possibility of “significant flooding”, 7News reports.

The lower Blue Mountains are expected to see the worst of the rain on Saturday and into Sunday.

For greater Sydney, much will depend on exactly where the rain falls and what happens when Warragamba Dam, the city’s main water source, begins to overflow on Saturday afternoon and dumps more water into heaving water courses.

“Based on our current modelling, we’re thinking that we might see some minor flooding at Penrith and North Richmond later today,” Bureau of Meteorology national flood services manager Justin Robinson told reporters.

Major flooding has hit several towns along the NSW mid-north coast, with those in low-lying properties around Taree, Dumaresq Island, Cundletown, Central Wingham and Wingham Peninsular ordered to evacuate on Saturday morning.

Evacuation orders were also issued in Kempsey, Port Macquarie, North Haven, Dunbogan, Camden Head and Laurieton on Friday.

The State Emergency Service has responded to more than 3200 calls for help since the wet weather began, including 335 flood rescues overnight.

That is a “huge number”, NSW SES spokesman Andrew McCullough said.

“A lot of those jobs are for people who are stuck in their houses, caravans, animals isolated by floodwater, people stuck in cars – it’s really for a wide mix of things,” he said.

The bureau warned of intense rainfall “potentially leading to life-threatening flash flooding” and damaging winds averaging 60-70km/h with gusts exceeding 90km/h.

While the rain will be “substantially heavier” than what Sydney copped earlier this week, it will not be of the same intensity that hit the mid-north coast on Thursday and Friday.

Sourced By: 7News