Heavy rains and flooding move down east coast

SBS World News Radio: Flooding has caused the evacuation of hundreds of people from their homes as New South Wales continues to be battered by the remnants of an east coast low.

Heavy rains and flooding move down east coastHeavy rains and flooding move down east coast

Heavy rains and flooding move down east coast

Heavy rain and strong winds hit parts of the Queensland coast earlier in the weekend and are now making their way towards Tasmania.

Australia's east coast remains in the grip of a weather emergency as a low pressure system moves south.

Since Saturday morning it's caused flash flooding, severe beach erosion and damage from fallen trees.

At the peak of the storm, power was cut to more than 30,000 homes, with Sydney's north and southern New South Wales among the hardest-hit areas.

Dangerous swells have smashed beaches, with a 12-metre freak wave recorded at Sydney's Botany Bay.

As of this morning, the New South Wales State Emergency Service had received over 9,000 requests for assistance.

Emergency teams began clearing the backlog of 3,000 of those calls at first light.

Speaking on Channel Nine, New South Wales SES acting Commissioner Greg Newton again urged people to stay out of the floodwaters.

"There's been over 270 flood rescues carried out over the course of the weekend, many of them because people have driven into water. You don't know how deep the water is, you don't know how fast it's flowing and often you don't even know even know if the road is there underneath the vehicle. You put yourself at risk and you put the rescuers at risk so please don't enter floodwater."

Flood watches were issued for more than 20 rivers across New South Wales over the weekend.

Waters in Lismore, in the state's north, peaked at 9.1 metres late on Sunday afternoon.

More than 500 people were evacuated, and the Richmond River High School was flooded.

Jenny Dowell is the Mayor of Lismore.

"Well, we could see the extent of the flooding, it was just enormous, particularly both channels but particularly to the Wilson's creek, Wilson's River Arm, and Leicester Creek but it's really extensive - I think we saw some evidence of perhaps some roads that perhaps will be washed out, we some evidence of people driving through floodwaters and some evidence of very isolated homes."

Residents told to evacuate from Lismore, Chinderah, the Seagulls Estate, and Fingal Head, near Tweed, have been given the all-clear to return.

Several suburbs in Sydney's low-lying northern and southwestern suburbs also received flood evacuation warnings, after receiving between 70 and 90 milimetres of rain.

The Bureau of Meteorology said Georges River at Milperra, in Sydney's west, saw its biggest flood in 30 years, peaking near 4.3 metres.

Several rivers are still causing concern, according to Greg Newton from the SES.

"We're still watching a number of rivers that have got significant amounts of water in them and may have further rises on the south coast and the Hawkesbury in the far west of Sydney but the weather system is actually clearing to the south, which is good news for NSW."

John Parker is from Victoria's SES, which is beginning to feel the effects of the extreme weather.

He was speaking to Channel Nine's Today Programme.

"Far East Gippsland is the main concern and we're watching, we've currently minor flood warning on Genoa/Cann rivers and the snowy river as well. The Bombala rivers are moderate at the moment and there's been significant rainfall that has fallen overnight and will continue throughout the day and we'll be monitoring those rivers."

John Parker says it's flooding caused by rising rivers causing the most concern to the state.

"The east coast low is dissipating and as it moves south, we've seen some significant rainfalls. We still expect up to 50ml throughout the day, maybe more in some isolated cases, but stream rises are the main concern for us at the moment, not necessarily flash flooding associated with large volumes of rain in a small period of time."

 






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