Evacuation warning as rain spills dams, swells rivers
Source: BOM
Sydney residents have been ordered to evacuate after a deluge tipped one of the city’s major dams over capacity.
Heavy falls bucketed on the NSW capital and surrounding areas as a surface trough lingered over the coast to close the week.
Minor flooding in Sackville North in northwest Sydney prompted the NSW SES to direct people in parts of the suburb to evacuate in the early hours of Saturday or risk becoming trapped.
The rain has swelled the dam supplying 80 per cent of the city’s drinking water over capacity and it began to spill, posing downstream flooding threats.
Warragamba dam, south west of Sydney, flows into the Nepean River in the city’s west before merging with the Hawkesbury River in the north.
Residents in some areas of the catchment, along the Nepean at Camden and Menangle and the Hawkesbury at North Richmond, were warned to prepare to evacuate as rivers started to rise on Friday.
Those who remain may find themselves trapped without power, water and other essential services and it could be too dangerous to rescue them, the SES warned.
June is the third consecutive month the dam has spilled.
Other low-lying parts of Sydney, along the Georges River at Chipping Norton in the city’s southwest, were also advised to prepare to flee rising floodwaters.
Those areas warned to prepare to evacuate are not strangers to flood activity in recent years.
Premier Chris Minns said on Friday flood-prone communities know what they need to do when rivers rise.
“They’re pretty adept, and used to, making sure they’re accessing the latest information and acting on it quickly,” he said, adding the state needs to get more used to extreme weather.
The surface trough that delivered the heavy rainfall began moving south on Friday afternoon, with rain continuing in the Illawarra and south coast as the trough moves out to sea.
Victoria’s east may have some showers as the trough makes its way south on Saturday but is unlikely to face the brunt of the rain system.
-AAP