Sydney floods: before and after photos show how city roads and parks became rivers and lakes

Mackellar Girls Campus in Manly Vale before and after the floods hit Sydney, NSW, on Tuesday. Composite: Dan Himbrechts/Google Maps/AAP

There were extraordinary scenes across Sydney on Tuesday after hours of torrential rain soaked an already saturated city.

Roads turned to rivers and a bridge was inundated, with some suburbs almost entirely cut off on the northern beaches where more than 100mm of rain fell in six hours.

Tens of thousands of residents were ordered to evacuate in Sydney’s north and south-west and many more were warned to prepare to leave, including some in Manly.

Here, you can see photographs taken on Tuesday alongside Google Street View images of the same locations.

This is the 17-metre-high Roseville Bridge in Sydney’s north – one of three crossings that connect the northern beaches to the city – before and after the floods. The bridge’s drainage system was unable to cope with the deluge.

Roseville Bridge, which crosses Middle Harbour, before the floods. Photograph: Google Maps

Cars float on the Roseville Bridge. Photograph: @real_MrIves/Twitter

Here is Camden Showground before and after the floods. The tables and chairs have disappeared in the second image and the bins float nearby.

Camden Showground looks the perfect picnic spot on a sunny day. Photograph: Google Maps

Camden Showground during the floods on Tuesday. Photograph: Dean Lewins/EPA

Here is Mackellar Girls Campus in Manly Vale, where high school students filmed a car being swept away outside their classroom window.

Mackellar Girls Campus in Manly Vale before the floods. Photograph: Google Maps

Mackellar Girls Campus students wait outside in knee-deep water on Tuesday. Photograph: Dan Himbrechts/AAP

At this petrol station on Newbridge Road in Chipping Norton, cars are replaced by a lone boat.

A petrol station on Newbridge Road in Chipping Norton before the floods. Photograph: Google Maps

The same petrol station, but with cars unable to drive on flooded roads, locals used a boat instead. Photograph: James D Morgan/Getty Images

This is the road outside the Camden tennis courts before and after the floods. The roof of the pavilion is just visible in the second image.

The Camden tennis courts on Mitchell Street before the floods. Photograph: Google Maps

Camden tennis courts underwater. Photograph: Muhammad Farooq/AFP/Getty Images

These three photos of an intersection in Windsor show the difference a few days makes. The first and second images were taken on 3 March with flood waters covering the roads, but on Tuesday the water is so high only half the sign and buildings are visible.

Flood waters cover the Windsor Bridge last Thursday. Photograph: Blake Sharp-Wiggins/The Guardian

Windsor Bridge last Thursday. Photograph: Blake Sharp-Wiggins/The Guardian

Windsor Bridge on Tuesday during the floods. Photograph: Xinhua/Rex/Shutterstock