Flood warnings and evacuations continue as wet weather eases

Warragamba Dam is beginning to recede as the wet weather eases after a long night of emergency flood warnings and rescue operations in Sydney and surrounding regions.

The State Emergency Service was notified of 297 incidents overnight and carried out 13 flood rescues as emergency evacuation orders were issued for dozens of areas along the Hawkesbury River, ranging from Agnes Banks to Lower Portland.

Emergency Services Minister Jihad Dib said weather conditions were improving and thanked more than 2,000 SES volunteers for their help.

“I’m glad to say the weather conditions are improving,” he said.

“As of the beginning of this week, the state’s emergency services have already begun deploying assets and making sure to get the word out to the community to be as prepared as possible.”

“I’m still disappointed … that some people made the decision to drive through flood waters.”

Warragamba Dam has also started to recede from its peak spill rate of 240 gigalitres per day, Water NSW chief executive Andrew George said.

“The good news is that the spill is now receding and we expect the spill level to return to more normal conditions in a few days,” George said.

We’re still getting good inflows into the catchment, but those inflows are going down.”

Warragamba experienced 100mm of rain, while the Nepean catchment had 140mm of rainfall, he said.

Acting NSW SES Commissioner Deb Platz APM said while the wet weather had eased, parts of the state would still experience flooding.

“What we will see now is river flooding in many areas, particularly in western Sydney, which will continue mostly throughout the day and hopefully ease later this afternoon and into tomorrow.”

“So despite the fact that there are blue skies, we really need people to understand … what routes are actually open and when you see flood waters, you don’t drive through those waters.”

The SES has 44 warnings, including 12 emergency evacuation orders, particularly around the Hawkesbury and Nepean areas.

Minor to major flood warnings are still in place for the Hawkesbury, Nepean, Cooks, Woronora, Shoalhaven and Hastings rivers, as well as the St George Basin.

Hawkesbury in North Richmond is currently experiencing moderate flood levels. It is not expected to rise further and there will be no impact on Windsor Bridge.

Flooding earlier forced Windsor Road to close in both directions between Pitt Town Road at McGraths Hill and Macquarie Street. It’s still closed.

Pitt Town Road is also closed between Wolseley Road and Saunders Road and at several other places along the stretch of road.

Some places that were closed yesterday remain closed this morning, including Richmond Bridge in Richmond, Yarramundi Bridge in Agnes Banks, Audley Weir in the Royal National Park and Menangle Bridge in Menangle Park.

The Illawarra Freeway has reopened at Albion Park between the M1 Princess Highway and Tongarra Road. 

However, some good news is that the BoM has lifted a severe weather warning that affected millions in the Illawarra and South Coast forecast areas.

The weather is expected to clear over the King’s Birthday long weekend, with Saturday being cloudy and raining mainly along the coast.

Both Sunday and Monday are expected to be mostly sunny with temperatures around 19 and 20 degrees, with rain returning briefly on Tuesday.