Greater Sydney facing 'life-threatening emergency' weather event as thousands told to evacuate

Thousands of people have been told to leave their homes across Sydney as a dangerous weather event, expected to linger until Tuesday, escalates. And the next 24 hours are critical.

Fears over the formation of an east coast low have materialised with Sydney, the Central Coast, the Hunter region, the South Coast and the Illawarra experiencing torrential rain, damaging winds, flash flooding, coastal erosion and riverine flooding.

Some areas have received more than 200 millimetres of rain with higher rainfalls of more than 350mm for parts of the Illawarra.

Daily rainfall in some places has exceeded their averages for July.

Moderate to major flood warnings are in place for the Hawkesbury and Colo rivers with flooding in the Nepean River expected to be on par with, or worse than, floods in March 2022.

There are also fears the Georges River at Milperra Bridge may peak at about 4 metres in the next couple of hours and exceed its minor flood level of 2 metres at Picnic Point.

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Thousands of south-west Sydney residents evacuated

The State Emergency Service (SES) has issued a number of evacuation orders including for parts of Camden, Chipping Norton, Georges Hall, Moorebank, Warwick Farm, Woronora, Bents Basin, Pleasure Point and Wallacia.

The heavy rainfall also caused the Warragamba Dam to spill at 2am this morning — much earlier that anticipated.

Water NSW said modelling showed the peak would be comparable to the major spill event in March last year.

Emergency Services Minister Steph Cooke said the region was facing a life-threatening situation.

“We are now facing dangers on multiple fronts— flash flooding, riverine flooding and coastal erosion,” she said.

“If you know your local community is prone to flooding then please be prepared to evacuate and 
at short notice.

“We have said this before, it is a rapidly evolving situation, so please continue to listen to the advice of the BOM [Bureau of Meteorology], listen to the advice of our emergency services organisations. Please, stay up-to-date.”

Residents in some parts of Chipping Norton are under evacuation orders.(ABC News: Isaac Nowroozi)

Over the next 24 hours, the BOM is warning the east coast low will continue to develop, start to move south and closer to the Sydney and Hunter coast.  

“For the Sydney area, we can expect more heavy rain today, particularly out towards the Blue Mountains and the Western Sydney area over the Hawkesbury-Nepean complex,” meteorologist Jane Goldind said.

“And we can expect more heavy rainfall to affect the Central Coast and other parts of the Hunter district today … we will also see thunderstorms develop.”

“We are also expecting to see an increase in the wind. So, that means trees down. We have already seen some damage from winds. Trees down, power lines down.”

The Georges River has started to rise significantly in some areas.(ABC News: Isaac Nowroozi)

In the past 24 hours, more than 900 SES personnel have responded to more than 1,400 requests for help and have carried out 29 flood rescues. They have been rostered on 24/7.

SES Commissioner Carlene York said she was expecting her staff to again be kept busy over the next 24 hours.

However, she said she was disappointed in people continuing to drive through floodwaters.

“We had one example where a person was walking through floodwaters and got swept away,” she said.

“They were unable to be rescued for an hour and had to hang onto a pole. It's extremely dangerous out there.”

Ms York said it took over an hour for a person who had been walking through floodwaters to get rescued.(ABC News)

She also said a group of children were due to be rescued from a camp in the Wollondilly Shire south of Sydney. 

“We have a number of youths isolated at a recreation camp in the Bargo area and we are putting in plans to evacuate them today,” she said.

“They are safe at the moment.”

Evacuation centres have been opened by local councils, but residents being told to evacuate are being urged to go to family or friends on higher ground.

Residents and businesses in parts of Camden have been told to prepare to evacuate.(Facebook: Steve Cooper)

Many people in the Blue Mountains and Hawkesbury were expecting to be cut off today, according to Federal Member for Macquarie Susan Templeman.

“We've already had one of our bridges close,” she said.

“The locals around Richmond and North Windsor are saying the water is coming up very fast under their bridges.”

Ms Templeton said the flooding would be devastating for a region that saw a record flood just three months ago and another in March 2021.

“This is another blow. People are already talking about leaving so that they don't have to go through this again,” she said.

“We have had so many of these floods. I know people who had just moved back into their homes after repairing them.”