High winds and flooding rains head to NSW
A wild weather system that caused flooding and tornadoes in Queensland is now moving through New South Wales.
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Parts of Sydney have been drenched in their heaviest daily rainfall totals in more than a decade as a wild storm system washed over the city on Monday night after causing havoc in the north of the state and in Queensland.
About 1500 residents downstream of Grafton spent the night in emergency accommodation after being evacuated due to the storm, which has claimed four lives in Queensland, including that of a three-year-old boy who was hit by a falling tree in Brisbane's north
Staying dry ... torrential rain hit Sydney on Monday. Photo: AP
The residents were ordered to evacuate from their homes in Ulmarra, Cowper and Brushgrove districts shortly before 7pm on Monday due to flooding of the Clarence River. Low-lying areas of North Lismore were also evacuated on Monday night.
Floodwaters also have cut off all roads between NSW and Queensland and isolated about 2000 people in northern NSW.
The remnants of ex-tropical cyclone Oswald stalled over northern NSW on Monday night, but a separate system formed and beat a path down the coast to Sydney.
Coffs Harbour ... flash flooding from rising storm water closed roads all over NSW. Photo: Frank Redward
Weatherzone meteorologist Brett Dutschke said Sydney was saturated in widespread rainfall totals of between 80 and 150 millimetres overnight, causing localised flooding in some areas, including Camden.
The wettest area of the city was Frenchs Forest, which received 155 millimetres of rain since 9am yesterday.
Richmond was saturated in 111 millimetres of rain, the biggest daily total in 16 years in the suburb, while Bankstown, Canterbury and Badgerys Creek recorded 100 millimetres, the heaviest in 12 years.
Mr Dutschke said many of Sydney's western suburbs received their heaviest daily rainfall totals in five years overnight.
But Mr Dutschke said by 5am on Tuesday, the heaviest rainfalls had passed for Sydney.
"So when people are getting ready to go to work it should not be too bad as far as rain coming down, except for water on roads that don't have such good drainage," he said.
"It will take a little bit longer for it to ease off in the Illawarra and the South Coast. The South Coast won't get any easing until this afternoon."
State Emergency Service spokesman Michael Eburn said officers had responded to 2900 calls for assistance for help across NSW, mostly in the north of the state.
However that number could rise rapidly as people wake on Tuesday and assessed the damage to their properties.
"Our local units have been out in Sydney dealing with localised flooding in Camden and normal call outs, such as trees down and leaking roofs," he said.
"It has certainly been more significant in the north of NSW. We've evacuated low-lying areas of North Lismore and a couple of evacuation warnings were issued for Grafton.
"We've done 19 flood rescues, and most of those are avoidable things - people entering floodwaters despite our advice."
Weatherzone.com.au is owned by Fairfax Media, publisher of this website.
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