Tens of thousands of New South Wales residents are facing severe disruption following a night of wild weather that brought destructive winds, torrential rain, power outages, and major delays across Sydney’s train network.
Seven emergency warnings remain in effect across the NSW coastline — stretching from the South Coast to the Central Coast — after a powerful storm system caused rivers to rise, homes to flood, and coastal erosion to worsen.
The NSW State Emergency Service (SES) has urged residents in Burrill Lake, near Ulladulla, to take immediate shelter, with floodwaters inundating around 200 homes. In Sanctuary Point near Jervis Bay, residents were told to move to higher ground, while urgent evacuation warnings were issued for Wamberal and The Entrance due to extreme erosion.
Nearly 30,000 properties remain without power, with the worst-affected areas ranging from Newcastle down to Batemans Bay. Endeavour Energy reported over 17,000 outages alone.
SES crews have responded to more than 2,300 incidents since the storm began, including flood rescues around the Shoalhaven area. Ulladulla recorded 223mm of rain overnight — the heaviest July total since 1994 — while Nowra received 156mm by early Wednesday morning.
Wind gusts reached 130kph at Wattamolla, 102kph in Sydney Harbour, and significant wave heights of six metres were observed off Port Kembla and Batemans Bay.
Sydney Trains CEO Matt Longland said damage to overhead wiring in Dora Creek and between St Marys and Penrith has forced closures, with buses replacing services. He warned of ongoing disruption: “Those repairs are going to take some time… there will be delays across the network.”
A critical incident unfolded in the Southern Highlands, where a 55-year-old truck driver remains in hospital after a tree fell on his vehicle in Moss Vale. Another driver in Cranebrook narrowly avoided serious injury when a tree brought down power lines and crushed the front of his car.
The Blue Mountains region also experienced severe impacts, with trees down across rail tracks in Lapstone, causing further delays and outages.
Authorities continue to urge caution and advise the public to avoid unnecessary travel as cleanup and repair efforts intensify across the state.
Source: ABC News
