By Paulina Vidal & Danuta Kozaki, ABC
Photo: Glenn Nicholls / AFP
Communities west of Sydney remain isolated following torrential rain across New South Wales on Friday night.
There are currently 84 flood warnings across NSW, dropping from over 100 warnings - including more than 10 evacuation orders - from just before 6am on Sunday morning.
A spokesperson for the NSW State Emergency Service (SES) said, in the 24 hours to this morning, the SES had responded to 146 flood rescues across the state.
Since midnight, no flood rescues have been recorded by the SES.
In the last 24 hours, we’ve received 1,877 incidents including 146 flood rescues.
— NSW SES (@NSWSES) April 6, 2024
98 warnings are still in place:
Emergency warnings – 23
Watch and Act warnings – 40
Advice warnings – 45
View all the warnings: https://t.co/t578A4uJoA pic.twitter.com/rjWtOUoes4
Just before 7pm on Saturday, the Hawkesbury River was under a major flood warning.
In a statement, the Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) warned the critical period would be Saturday evening and overnight into Sunday.
Moderate flooding was occurring along the Colo and Upper Nepean rivers.
Authorities were also predicting the Windsor Bridge could be submerged before midnight on Saturday after water started lapping underneath earlier in the day.
As of this morning, Windsor Bridge is still open.
Photo: NSW SES
According to BOM, the Hawkesbury River at Windsor was at 9.35m and steady this morning, above the moderate flood level.
There are predictions that the Hawkesbury River at Windsor could peak near 9.6m, with moderate flooding.
However, BOM also said the river level is likely to remain above the moderate flood level through Sunday and into Monday.
According to the SES, there were 1400 nearby dwellings and more than 3600 people under emergency warnings as of this morning.
Hawkesbury mayor Sarah McMahon said it was now a waiting game for her community.
"Potentially our farmers, home owners and residents who are down on the lowlands will need to see if their properties and their businesses have been impacted," she said.
"That's what we'll be doing this morning [Sunday] while we assess the river heights, and then once that starts to recede we'll start thinking of the clean-up job."
Scott McLennan, a superintendent with the SES, said an evacuation centre had been set up on the western side of the Hawkesbury.
"We are working through a range of warnings as the situation changes," he said.
"With the peaks of the Hawkesbury-Nepean River passing overnight, we will start seeing the gradual falling of the river and that debris starting to move down stream.
This morning, the SES said it planned, from today, to start damage assessments west of Penrith, and then in other areas along the Hawkesbury-Nepean River.
Residents in the Megalong Valley in the Blue Mountains were also on stand-by on Saturday after the main road was cut off due to a landslip.
A wedding party at Dryridge Estate for the nuptials of a local couple were among those impacted.
Venue director Emma McMahon said the group had arrived before the incident but catering was stuck elsewhere.
"We banded together with the Tea Rooms, which is the cafe down in the Megalong, and they very kindly cooked for the wedding," she said.
"We are hoping with the amount of people in the Valley and the amount of businesses - and this is affecting a lot of people - we are hoping this is what is needed to get this road fixed after three years."
Blue Mountains mayor Mark Greenhill said on Saturday up to 300 people could be trapped in the Valley and the decision of how they leave will be made by geotechnical experts.
"We're looking at whether or not we can put a temporary bridge in to get across the broken gap and perhaps potentially get vehicles in," he said.
"In the meantime, we've got helicopters on stand-by to drop provisions into the Valley should they be needed.
"But our priority will be - as soon as the geotechnical experts clear it - to get people in there, either by foot or by vehicle, in order to start getting people out."
He said the helicopters were well stocked and can deliver medical and food supplies.
Photo: Blue Mountains District Council
Dramatic rescues
Across the state, the SES responded to 4516 incidents between Friday and Sunday, with 2500 around Sydney.
They also carried out more than 150 flood rescues, 88 of which were undertaken in the metropolitan area.
In Dapto, south of Wollongong, emergency services waded through rapidly moving water to rescue a woman as her car began to go under.
Crews used rescue lines to guide her out to safety. There were no injuries.
In a separate incident in the same suburb, two young women caught in floodwater clung onto trees as they waited for the SES to arrive.
A farmer in the Western Sydney suburb of Luddenham had intended to save his animals, but instead had to be rescued after getting stuck in the middle of his paddock, which was underwater.
In Londonderry, nine people and 25 dogs needed to be rescued after a house was inundated.
Dams overflow
On Saturday afternoon, the Tallowa, Nepean, Blue Mountains and Warragamba dams were overflowing after receiving significant rainfall.
Warragamba Dam was the first to spill in the early hours of Saturday morning, after the catchment area got a dumping of 100mm over a six-hour period.
Closer to the dam wall, that figure reached 130mm. The dam is currently spilling about 200 gigalitres per day.
WaterNSW said it was keeping an eye on the Woronora and Cataract dams, which were also expected to spill but were at 99 per cent and 94 per cent respectively by Saturday evening.
- This story was first published by the ABC.
