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“The weather will continue for a number of days. It’s still dangerous as the water goes away. It will be a while, for example, before the bridges come back on the Hawkesbury River... obviously the land is saturated. It’s still dangerous out there,” she said.
A large swell impacts Cronulla Beach on Tuesday morning.Credit:Peter Rae
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Weatherzone meteorologist Joel Pippard said many places across southern Sydney, the Illawarra and Central Tablelands regions had experienced four to eight times their monthly rainfall in the past five days, including Brogers Creek which has recorded 866mm.
More than 200mm of rain fell in parts of Greater Sydney overnight into Tuesday. Weather bureau data released just after 5am on Tuesday shows Darkes Forest near Helensburgh received 221mm of rain between 9am on Monday and 4.30am on Tuesday. In Sydney’s south, Lucas Heights received 202mm during the same period.
NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet urged people to be careful around floodwaters. “This event is far from over. Don’t be complacent,” he said. “There are still substantial risks for flash flooding across our state and once again, as we always say, please don’t drive through floodwaters.”
When questioned about how the federal flood response had compared under a Labor government, Perrottet said the immediate response and co-ordination had been “very strong”. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese is expected to visit flood-affected areas upon his return from overseas.
Tens of thousands of residents remain out of their homes, as many ponder their future and how, if at all, they will recover.
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NSW Emergency Management Minister Steph Cooke called on any resident who required accommodation to reach out as hundreds sought shelter in evacuation centres.
Cooke said there were more than 400 NSW residents staying in evacuation centres and 150 separate people in emergency accommodation.
“Those options are available to people. We’d certainly ask people to reach out to us at any stage if they feel as though they need that extra assistance,” she said. “We do have places for them to seek refuge, and they will be looked after.”
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