Evacuation orders, traffic chaos as deadly floods sweep through Sydney
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Thousands of people in NSW were ordered to leave their homes as rising waters sparked chaos.
An east coast low has caused significant rainfall over Greater Sydney and its surrounds, and authorities warned while the rain would ease as the week goes on, swollen rivers would continue to rise.
Police pulled two bodies from floodwaters in Wentworthville, in the city's western suburbs, on Tuesday morning and later in the day, several parts of the northern beaches were inundated.
This is how the day unfolded.
By Riley Stuart
Live updates have closed on this blog, this is what you need to know:
By Heath Parkes-Hupton
By Riley Stuart
It's been a wet and wild ride today — but I must sign off. I'll pin a post to the top of this stream where you can get the latest information.
Until we meet again.
By Riley Stuart
So it's not the Harbour Bridge, but this snap of the Roseville Bridge across Middle Harbour has been doing the rounds today. Pretty incredible.
By Riley Stuart
By Riley Stuart
In case you were wondering:
By Riley Stuart
Here's some more context about what what happened at Manly this afternoon.
By Riley Stuart
By Riley Stuart
By Riley Stuart
Thank you to everyone who chimed in, here's a couple of my favourites.
And here's one from the person who started it all by quite rightly pointing out the typo!
Thank you for playing all — now back to the floods.
By Riley Stuart
Singapore's air force has deployed two Chinook choppers to help flood recovery efforts in Queensland and NSW.
The two helicopters are usually based at a facility in Queensland, and are being used to transport personnel and emergency supplies.
Singapore is also sending a relief package containing things like tents, blankets, ready-to-eat meals, water and medical supplies which was due to depart the city-state today.
By Riley Stuart
The NSW State Emergency Service (SES) has issued flood evacuation orders for the entire suburbs of McGraths Hill and Mulgrave, in Sydney's north-west.
It says once floodwater reaches 13.5m at nearby Windsor, the area will be isolated.
It's telling people to evacuate by 8:30pm and warning if they don't, they may become trapped without power, or water, and that it may be too dangerous to perform rescues.
By Riley Stuart
By Riley Stuart
Cam from Clifton Hill, this is the most brilliantly witty comment I've seen in five years. I fear perhaps only you and I will understand it — if anyone else does, sing out!
A clue: it relates to another post from the past hour. 🤔
By Riley Stuart
By Riley Stuart
This is what you need to know about the night ahead.
The BOM says: "An east coast low is continuing to slowly deepen off the Hunter Coast and is expected to track to the south-southeast overnight and Wednesday, taking it gradually further offshore."
Heavy rain could lead to flash flooding in these areas:
Between 5pm and 11pm those areas could get between 70-100mm of rain.
Meanwhile, damaging winds could be prevalent in these areas:
By Riley Stuart
So just how wet has it been today?
Here are some of the bureau's main observations:
There was a wind gust of 94km/h at Kiama recorded at 2:18pm and one at 91km/h at Montague Island at 11:56am.
By Riley Stuart
By Riley Stuart
Well, it's good to be anywhere safe and dry in NSW this month.
I'll be sharing flood and weather developments with you this evening.
Here's one to kick us off: my wardrobe started leaking today … it appears the ceiling at our place in Sydney has finally sucummbed after more than 130mm of rain in the past 24 hours.
These hands are definitely better at emailing than roof plumbing, so sorting that will have to be tomorrow's problem!
I'm certainly not complaining: so many people have lost so much on the east coast of Australia in the past two weeks.
Thankfully, in NSW at least, the weather is starting to improve from tomorrow.
More on that later. For now: strap yourselves in.
By Heath Parkes-Hupton
That's it from me today.
I'm handing the reigns back over to Riley Stuart, who will keep you posted this evening.
Thanks for reading – and stay safe!
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