More than 350,000 people in New South Wales remain under evacuation warnings or orders as rain starts to dissipate but rivers in some areas are still at major flood levels.
The Bureau of Meteorology had no alerts for severe weather across NSW as of 7am AEDT on Friday after cancelling a warning for thunderstorms in the Hunter and mid-north coast regions.
Almost 94,000 people are covered by 69 evacuation orders with a further 287,000 living in areas where evacuation warnings are in place, according to a NSW State Emergency Service spokesperson.
Most are in the Sydney region, with residents in an area near Wisemans Ferry on the Hawkesbury-Nepean ordered to move to higher ground on Friday as the river continued to rise towards moderate flood levels at that location, the ABC reported.
The Hawkesbury-Nepean River on Sydney’s north and western fringe was “still a major concern”, the SES said.
As of Friday morning, major flooding was still occurring at North Richmond.
Major flooding still happening at North Richmond on the Hawkesbury-Nepean River near Sydney, @BOM_au data shows. pic.twitter.com/Xs0dGhz7So
— Peter Hannam (@p_hannam) March 3, 2022
At Windsor, the river level remained just below major flooding levels, and may have peaked, the bureau said.
The Hawkesbury-Nepean River is near major flooding level at Windsor, @BOM_au data shows. pic.twitter.com/QDndqTlTG6
— Peter Hannam (@p_hannam) March 3, 2022
The bureau was forecasting Sydney to collect a further 5mm to 15mm of rain on Friday in an updated prediction – with showers becoming less likely as the day progresses. There is the chance of a thunderstorm across the Sydney basin, which is one reason why the SES said more flooding was possible and urged people to stay alert for warnings.
Overnight, the SES lifted a dozen evacuation orders, allowing 18,633 people to return to their homes. In the past 24 hours, it responded to more than 3,600 calls for assistance and conducted 50 flood rescues.
The east coast low that threatened to dump more than 100mm of rain on a large area of the central NSW, including Sydney, on Thursday moved closer to the coast further north than had been predicted.
That kept falls to about 20mm for Sydney’s central business district, while areas in the Hunter region topped 70mm, bureau data showed.
The latest figures on the scale of the Warragamba Dam spill, which contributed to the flooding of the Hawkesbury and Nepean rivers, showed the peak flow over the dam wall was 315 gigalitres a day at 3am on Thursday – about 24 hours after the city’s biggest dam started spilling.
As of Friday morning, flows were down to a rate of 128GL/day. Rainfall over the catchment also eased and inflows into the dam had dropped to 92GL/day.
Most Sydney dams are still spilling save for Prospect, Fitzroy Falls and Wingecarribee, but all rates of spill were receding, the government said.
The outlook, while improving in the near term, includes more rain over flood-hit areas of eastern Australia.
Eastern Australian rain isn't going away, and flood-hit areas could get another soaking in the next eight days. @BOM_au pic.twitter.com/2Gfoh7u9Bl
— Peter Hannam (@p_hannam) March 3, 2022
The remnants of Tropical Cyclone Anika have brought heavy falls over remote parts of inland Australia and will bring rain to south-eastern Australia in the coming days.
Some meteorological models have that system potentially developing into another east coast low for the central NSW coast early next week, according to Ben Domensino, a senior meteorologist at Weatherzone.
While flood-hit areas continue to mop up, some coastal communities will be assessing the erosion damage after days of hazardous surf along the entire NSW coast.
Large and powerful waves have been causing beach #erosion and coastal inundation in parts of eastern #NSW today, with waves washing onto properties at the storm-weary #CollaroyBeach.
— Weatherzone (@weatherzone) March 3, 2022
More at https://t.co/ZLyLEISQct
Image credit: Felix Levesque pic.twitter.com/uc0vxgovh3
