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Residents ordered to evacuate flooding in parts of New South Wales
ABC NEWS (Australia)
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5/24/2025
Senior Meteorologist, Dean Narramore, says authorities are particularly concerned for residents in and near river catchments in New South Wales.
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00:00
Over the last 24 hours, we've seen widespread heavy and persistent rainfall from Port Macquarie
00:07
all the way down to just north of Newcastle, and that extended well inland as well.
00:11
Since 9 o'clock yesterday in the last 24 hours, we've seen widespread falls of 100 to 200
00:17
millimetres in that zone, and the heaviest falls were around the Taree area, up to around
00:22
280 millimetres, Port Macquarie around 240 millimetres, Gloucester itself 200 millimetres,
00:28
and this rain is likely to continue today, with severe weather warnings current from
00:32
Nambucca Heads all the way down to Newcastle, extending well inland as well, through large
00:38
parts of the mid-north coast and the Hunter area.
00:41
Now, further rainfall is going to lead to further rises and widespread flash and riverine flooding,
00:47
and we do have major flooding right now occurring, or forecast to occur, on the Manning, the Gloucester,
00:52
as well as the Patterson and Williams Rivers.
00:54
And we had residents in parts of Buladila told to evacuate their homes, as we heard there
01:00
quite fast, an hour's notice there, as well as people in Patterson, Dungog, Gloucester,
01:04
a shelter, a Sikh shelter warning in place of a Taree.
01:07
What are the specific concerns there?
01:10
Yeah, our specific concerns really are our residents and communities on those flood-affected
01:14
rivers, and they're rivers, creeks and streams, or low-lying areas.
01:18
Some of our creeks and streams, and even upper catchments of our rivers, the Manning, the
01:23
Patterson as well, have seen rises of six, eight metres in river-level rises, and some
01:29
locations up to 10 metres.
01:31
And that's all going to flow downstream, as all that water makes its way into our rivers.
01:35
So we're particularly concerned about our residents, as you mentioned earlier, in those
01:39
towns, and many others further downstream through today and into tonight, as all this water continues
01:44
to move downstream, and we're still lucky to see widespread further heavy rainfall today
01:49
that will lead to further rises on these rivers, creeks and streams.
01:53
And what is this system doing?
01:56
Yeah, unfortunately, it's stalled.
01:58
It is situated pretty much right over the Taree area, and that band of rain just continues
02:03
to stream onto the coast, and well inland into the mountains as well, and towards the Barrington
02:08
tops.
02:08
We're expected to continue today, tonight, into tomorrow.
02:11
And then as we get into Thursday, we're going to see an upper low moving to western New
02:15
South Wales, and that might give it another oomph of energy, and that's going to spread
02:20
widespread rain across much of eastern, central, and then southern parts of New South Wales.
02:25
But the good news from that is that localised heavy rainfall threat will ease, but we still
02:30
have 48 hours of heavy to locally intense rainfall from about Numbucca Heads all the way down
02:36
to north of Newcastle.
02:37
Of particular concern are our residents and communities near Forster, Dungog, as well as
02:42
the Port Macquarie and Taree areas.
02:44
We have a separate warning for damaging surf in the Hunter and Mid-North Coast regions.
02:48
What can you tell us about that?
02:50
Yeah, that's right.
02:50
Much of the New South Wales coasts are expecting large and damaging surf.
02:55
That's because we're getting all this wind as this is piling up onto the east coast.
02:58
Damaging wind is also possible, so it forms our elevated areas and coastal locations.
03:02
But those winds are causing these large seas and swells, and that could lead to possible
03:06
coastal erosion, particularly for those right on the beach and on the high tides today,
03:12
tonight, and again on the high tides tomorrow.
03:14
So some dangerous and choppy conditions with large waves for much of the New South Wales coast
03:19
today and tomorrow.
03:20
And so with this system and the subsequent flooding that we are expecting, what are the areas of
03:25
concern in the coming days?
03:27
Yeah, it really is that corridor from pretty much just south of Numbucca Heads all the way down
03:32
to just north of Newcastle, and extending well inland to the ranges as well, particularly
03:37
those living on or near any rivers, creeks or streams in the Manning catchment on the
03:42
Gloucester River, the Paterson River, as well as the Williams River as well, as we're
03:47
likely to see further rainfall lead to widespread flash and riverine flooding, widespread road
03:52
closures, and we could even see inundations of homes, properties and businesses as this
03:56
rain is likely to continue for at least the next two days.
03:59
And so, yeah, when will we expect this rain and subsequent flooding to ease?
04:05
Yeah, unfortunately not until around probably Thursday, probably even more so into Friday
04:10
actually, we'll start to see that rain move down into New South Wales, and it really isn't
04:14
until Saturday that we're going to see the rain clear much of the state.
04:17
But it is really the next two days into Thursday that we're going to see most of that heavy rainfall.
04:22
So we've still got a long way to go, unfortunately.
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