BOM forecasts wild weather and 'life-threatening' flooding and winds across NSW
The Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) has warned of "life-threatening" flash flooding and windstorms stretching from the NSW Mid North Coast and Sydney's north. The BOM last night issued severe weather warnings for "the northern half of NSW" for damaging winds and heavy rainfall.
"This will likely continue into Saturday and move southwards into the Sydney Basin and the Illawarra," BOM meteorologist Jackson Browne said.
"Strong, moist easterly flow in the Tasman Sea is pouring into the NSW Great Divide, with a coastal trough forming, providing a focus for heavy rainfall."Mr Browne said the coastline should expect to get drenched throughout the weekend, with the bureau forecasting up to 300 millimetres of rain between last night and Sunday evening. This morning the BOM upped the alert.
It said intense rainfall from the region stretching over 500 kilometres from Coffs Harbour down to Gordon could develop into "dangerous and life-threatening flash flooding".
"Roads are likely to be cut off by water and there will be an increased risk of landslips over this period," it said.
Damaging winds, with peak gusts in excess of 90 kilometres per hour, are likely to develop in the Mid North Coast before moving southwards by the evening.
More flood warnings were issued across the state including some parts of southern and northern Sydney, as well as the Georges and Woronora rivers.
The NSW State Emergency Services (SES) has also directed residents in the low-lying areas along the Myall River, in Buladelah north of Newcastle, to standby for evacuation.
In Sydney, overhead wires went down causing stoppages to the light rail network between Central and Circular Quay and an evacuation of a train near Kellyville.
NSW Transport Minister Andrew Constance said several replacement buses have been deployed today ahead of the rainstorm and engineers were still investigating why the overhead wires went down.
"We're looking at the root cause [but] it is a bit of a coincidence that we've had two of our major networks taken out during the height of the bad weather," Mr Constance said.
The SES said it received over 2,000 calls since yesterday with most of the assistance going out to people in the Mid North Coast.Coordinator of Duty Operations Sharon Fox warned motorists to be careful of being trapped on inundated roads over the coming days."We've had nine flood rescues so that's always a concern for us," she said.
"We really need to get the message clearly out to the community that if you're driving on the road and you come across a flooded road, please don't attempt to cross.
"It does not take much rain at all to push your car off the road."
