A dozen people have been rescued from flood waters and a community is bracing to evacuate in New South Wales as rain lashes large parts of Australia, with thunderstorms expected along most of the east coast into Wednesday evening.
The NSW State Emergency Service (SES) conducted 12 flood rescues on Wednesday afternoon, spread across eight communities in the state’s south east.
More than 550 incidents were responded to in NSW since midnight Tuesday and dozens of homes had been inundated, with volunteers continuing to call to a “large number”, particularly in the south east.
Meanwhile, the town of Deniliquin had been “effectively cut off” due to flood waters.
Some 135mm of rain hit the town over a 24-hour period, its wettest day in any month for 145 years, and its second-highest daily rainfall on record in any month in records going back to 1858.
Other parts of the south coast including Sassafras, Moruya and Jervis Bay were hit with more than 200mm of rain, leading to localised flash flooding.
Chief superintendent Dallas Burnes warned further flash flooding was likely, with heavy rainfall of up to 300mm possible and severe weather expected to impact the South Coast from Jervis Bay to the Victorian border on Wednesday evening.
Forecast thunderstorms and “super cells” were also expected to hit north-east parts of NSW, bringing damaging wind and “giant hail”.
There were 15 warnings active for various river systems in the state, including Moruya, with a watch and act warning expected to be issued for Bega. River rises may reach the “major” level Wednesday evening, Burnes said, which would require evacuations.
“If that is the case the SES will be conducting door knocking into those areas we expect to be impacted,” he said.
“We are urging residents to follow the directions of NSW SES personnel if they are asked to leave.”
There have already been some evacuations, including a property at Wrights Beach, while 40 properties were inundated at Lake Conjola.
Meteorologist Miriam Bradbury from the Bureau of Meteorology (BoM) said a low-pressure trough and low-pressure system were working together to draw moisture from the northern tropics, creating a thunderstorm risk for “most of the east coast” on Wednesday.
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Bradbury said this could impact Brisbane, the Gold Coast and Sunshine Coast, as well as Newcastle, Sydney, Wollongong and Canberra.
Severe thunderstorms were no longer impacting Canberra and Queanbeyan as at 1.24pm, with a previous warning cancelled.
Fire and Rescue NSW said it had deployed five “in-water” strike teams to the south coast amid the heavy rainfall.
The teams included 20 highly-trained firefighters and two team leaders, who would be working in Ulladulla, Batemans Bay, Moruya, Bega and Eden.
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Twenty-two dedicated NSW SES flood rescue teams were also responding to flood…
2023-11-29 02:47:44
Link from www.theguardian.com
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