NSW Premier Mike Baird says property damage suffered during weekend storms across the state's coast "goes into insignificance" when lives have been lost.
Two bodies were found in cars caught in floodwaters in separate incidents in the Southern Highlands and Sydney's southwest on Monday, as authorities grappled with the fallout from the violent east coast low.
"We come with a heavy heart," Mr Baird said at Collaroy beach on Monday, where several million-dollar plus homes were hanging precariously over the sand after being smashed by eight metre waves that washed away 10 to 15 metres of the coastline.
"It was a storm so ferocious, it took life from us."
Police confirmed on Monday that the body of a 65-year-old man was found in a car in Mittagong Creek near Bowral, after the man was reported missing on Sunday.
Emergency services descended on Mittagong Creek on Sunday evening after a car was spotted in floodwaters with its hazard lights flashing.
On Monday morning the man's body was discovered inside his silver Mazda.
The man is yet to be formally identified and investigations are ongoing.
The body of another man was found in a white ute at Leppington in Sydney's southwest on Monday after police and State Emergency Service crews searched the flood-ravaged area into Sunday night without success.
Police divers retrieved the man's body at about 11.30am on Monday and efforts are underway to winch his ute from Rileys Creek.
News of the men's deaths came after a 37-year-old Canberra man died after his car was caught in floodwaters near the Cotter Dam.
Share
