Residents ordered to evacuate flooding in parts of New South Wales

ABC NEWS (Australia)

Senior Meteorologist, Dean Narramore, says authorities are particularly concerned for residents in and near river catchments in New South Wales.

Transcript

00:00Over the last 24 hours, we've seen widespread heavy and persistent rainfall from Port Macquarie

00:07all the way down to just north of Newcastle, and that extended well inland as well.

00:11Since 9 o'clock yesterday in the last 24 hours, we've seen widespread falls of 100 to 200

00:17millimetres in that zone, and the heaviest falls were around the Taree area, up to around

00:22280 millimetres, Port Macquarie around 240 millimetres, Gloucester itself 200 millimetres,

00:28and this rain is likely to continue today, with severe weather warnings current from

00:32Nambucca Heads all the way down to Newcastle, extending well inland as well, through large

00:38parts of the mid-north coast and the Hunter area.

00:41Now, further rainfall is going to lead to further rises and widespread flash and riverine flooding,

00:47and we do have major flooding right now occurring, or forecast to occur, on the Manning, the Gloucester,

00:52as well as the Patterson and Williams Rivers.

00:54And we had residents in parts of Buladila told to evacuate their homes, as we heard there

01:00quite fast, an hour's notice there, as well as people in Patterson, Dungog, Gloucester,

01:04a shelter, a Sikh shelter warning in place of a Taree.

01:07What are the specific concerns there?

01:10Yeah, our specific concerns really are our residents and communities on those flood-affected

01:14rivers, and they're rivers, creeks and streams, or low-lying areas.

01:18Some of our creeks and streams, and even upper catchments of our rivers, the Manning, the

01:23Patterson as well, have seen rises of six, eight metres in river-level rises, and some

01:29locations up to 10 metres.

01:31And that's all going to flow downstream, as all that water makes its way into our rivers.

01:35So we're particularly concerned about our residents, as you mentioned earlier, in those

01:39towns, and many others further downstream through today and into tonight, as all this water continues

01:44to move downstream, and we're still lucky to see widespread further heavy rainfall today

01:49that will lead to further rises on these rivers, creeks and streams.

01:53And what is this system doing?

01:56Yeah, unfortunately, it's stalled.

01:58It is situated pretty much right over the Taree area, and that band of rain just continues

02:03to stream onto the coast, and well inland into the mountains as well, and towards the Barrington

02:08tops.

02:08We're expected to continue today, tonight, into tomorrow.

02:11And then as we get into Thursday, we're going to see an upper low moving to western New

02:15South Wales, and that might give it another oomph of energy, and that's going to spread

02:20widespread rain across much of eastern, central, and then southern parts of New South Wales.

02:25But the good news from that is that localised heavy rainfall threat will ease, but we still

02:30have 48 hours of heavy to locally intense rainfall from about Numbucca Heads all the way down

02:36to north of Newcastle.

02:37Of particular concern are our residents and communities near Forster, Dungog, as well as

02:42the Port Macquarie and Taree areas.

02:44We have a separate warning for damaging surf in the Hunter and Mid-North Coast regions.

02:48What can you tell us about that?

02:50Yeah, that's right.

02:50Much of the New South Wales coasts are expecting large and damaging surf.

02:55That's because we're getting all this wind as this is piling up onto the east coast.

02:58Damaging wind is also possible, so it forms our elevated areas and coastal locations.

03:02But those winds are causing these large seas and swells, and that could lead to possible

03:06coastal erosion, particularly for those right on the beach and on the high tides today,

03:12tonight, and again on the high tides tomorrow.

03:14So some dangerous and choppy conditions with large waves for much of the New South Wales coast

03:19today and tomorrow.

03:20And so with this system and the subsequent flooding that we are expecting, what are the areas of

03:25concern in the coming days?

03:27Yeah, it really is that corridor from pretty much just south of Numbucca Heads all the way down

03:32to just north of Newcastle, and extending well inland to the ranges as well, particularly

03:37those living on or near any rivers, creeks or streams in the Manning catchment on the

03:42Gloucester River, the Paterson River, as well as the Williams River as well, as we're

03:47likely to see further rainfall lead to widespread flash and riverine flooding, widespread road

03:52closures, and we could even see inundations of homes, properties and businesses as this

03:56rain is likely to continue for at least the next two days.

03:59And so, yeah, when will we expect this rain and subsequent flooding to ease?

04:05Yeah, unfortunately not until around probably Thursday, probably even more so into Friday

04:10actually, we'll start to see that rain move down into New South Wales, and it really isn't

04:14until Saturday that we're going to see the rain clear much of the state.

04:17But it is really the next two days into Thursday that we're going to see most of that heavy rainfall.

04:22So we've still got a long way to go, unfortunately.

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