Australia’s East Coast is being smashed by summer storms as residents are told to evacuate in some areas.
An emergency warning is in place for Sydney’s Northern Beaches on Sunday morning, with locals at Narrabeen Lagoon and surrounds told to leave.
More than a dozen people have been rescued across Sydney with cars submerged and homes flooded.
At Great Mackerel Beach, in the Northern Beaches, a landslide damaged numerous homes, with at least one individual injured.
The storm system also claimed the life of a woman on Saturday after a tree branch fell on her car and NSW SES crews received more than 800 calls for help after heavy rain lashed NSW.
Bureau of Meteorology (BoM) senior meteorologist Edward Townsend-Medlock said further heavy rainfall was expected from Sydney’s northern suburbs through to the Hunter Coast on Sunday morning 18 January.
“Within that concentrated area is where you could get some of those more severe thunderstorm cells that we saw, for example, on the Central Coast,” he told AAP.
At least 750 SES volunteers were on the ground responding to weekend storm call-outs, with the busiest units in the South Coast, Illawarra, Sydney and Hunter regions.
Amazingly, 71mm of rainfall was recorded at the Wangi Bowling Club in the 90 minutes to midnight on Saturday, while Lake Macquarie and Cessnock reported in excess of 130mm overnight.
Meanwhile, there are power outages for residents in Awaba, Eraring, Wyee and Morisset, affecting 189 customers with a restoration time of about 4pm to 6pm.
A severe thunderstorm, and possible flash flooding, was slated for Maitland and Cessnock on Sunday, too.
NSW SES spokeswoman Emily Barton told AAP rain had been experienced “far and wide” across the state.
Crews would focus on the Blue Mountains, Central Coast and Sydney metropolitan area on Sunday as clean-up efforts continued, she said.
Warnings remain in place for hazardous surf on the East Coast at beaches stretching from Newcastle to Batemans Bay, as well as the Eden coast.
A woman died during the storms on Saturday afternoon when a tree branch fell on her car on Macquarie Pass, south of Wollongong.
“The woman was a driver in the vehicle when the incident happened,” NSW Police said.
A man in the front seat passenger suffered minor injuries, and two people in the rear were not physically harmed.
Queensland also copped a bout of wild weather as a band of thunderstorms rolled across the south-east.
For more news stories:
- Woman dead, five hospitalised in two-vehicle crash at Salamander Bay
- Port Stephens DV refuge nears completion
- Woman charged following domestic-related stabbing at Carrington
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