New South Wales emergency services have been kept busy responding to over 600 calls for help as intense rainfall brought flash flooding to the region. In the Illawarra and south coast areas, more than 350 incidents and 21 rescues from floodwaters were recorded, with the area bearing the brunt of the weather’s fury.
A Culburra aged care home required assistance evacuating some residents due to flooding and major roof leaks, while a family had to be rescued when their home flooded at Culburra Beach. In total, rescues were carried out from cars, with many people having to be plucked from the floodwaters.
“The weather system we’re monitoring has the potential to move into the metropolitan parts of Sydney and could be problematic during peak hour traffic,” said NSW SES State duty commander, Colin Malone. The intense rainfall was expected to continue into the evening, making for a potentially hazardous situation.
Bureau of Meteorology senior meteorologist Jonathan How explained that the region’s warm sea surface temperatures, ranging from 26 to 27 degrees, had contributed to the recent humid conditions and made more moisture available for showers and storms.
Rainy Chaos Hits NSW as Emergency Services Carry Out 42 Flood RescuesGreenwell Point north of Jarvis Bay received a whopping 379mm of rain within 24 hours, with 178mm falling in just two hours. Wollongong and southern suburbs of Sydney, including Marrickville, Little Bay, the airport, Sans Souci, and Peakhurst, picked up over 50mm of rainfall.
However, the storms were confined to the coast, with inland areas receiving significantly less rainfall. For example, Nowra, just 10km inland from Greenwell Point, received only 10mm of rain.
Meanwhile, Tropical Cyclone Gabrielle was forming off the Queensland coast, but was expected to pass close to Norfolk Island on Friday night without posing any direct threat to the region. The cyclone was expected to intensify into a category two system on Thursday and potentially a severe category three by Friday, with offshore wind gusts of up to 224kmh.
As the country continues to experience the effects of the weather, heatwave conditions were forecast for north-east NSW and south-east Queensland over the weekend. Summer temperatures were returning to South Australia, with 36C predicted for Adelaide on Thursday, and heat pushing into Victoria on Friday.