Evacuation order after wild summer storms kill a woman
Australia’s east coast is being battered by summer storms as residents are told to evacuate.
An emergency warning was issued for Sydney’s Northern Beaches on Sunday morning and residents of Narrabeen Lagoon and surrounding areas were told to leave the area.
More than a dozen people have been rescued after cars were submerged and homes flooded in Sydney.
A landslide damaged several homes and injured at least one woman at Great Mackerel Beach on the Northern Beaches.
The storm system also killed a woman when a tree branch fell on her car on Saturday, and SES crews received more than 800 calls for help after heavy rain lashed NSW.
Senior meteorologist Edward Townsend-Medlock said further heavy rainfall was expected from Sydney’s northern suburbs to the Hunter Coast on Sunday morning.
“This concentrated area is where you can find some of the more severe storm cells that we see on the Central Coast, for example,” he told AAP.
At least 750 SES volunteers were on the ground responding to storm calls over the weekend, with the busiest units on the South Coast, Illawarra, Sydney and Hunter regions.
NSW SES spokeswoman Emily Barton told AAP the rain was happening “everywhere” across the state.
He said crews would focus on the Blue Mountains, Central Coast and Sydney metropolitan area on Sunday as clean-up efforts continue.
Warnings remain of dangerous surf on beaches along the east coast from Newcastle to Batemans Bay and the Eden coast.
A woman was killed when a tree branch fell on her car during Saturday afternoon’s storm at Macquarie Pass, south of Wollongong.
“The woman was the driver of the vehicle when the incident occurred,” NSW Police said.
While one person sitting in the front seat was slightly injured, the two passengers sitting in the back seat did not suffer any physical damage.
Queensland has also weathered a severe weather crisis as a group of thunderstorms dumped up to 60mm across the south-east, leaving around 11,000 properties without power.
More than 2000 properties in Laidley and Brightview in Queensland’s Lockyer Valley are still without power after severe weather ripped roofs off homes and brought down trees.
Sunny skies are expected on the first day of the Australian Open main draw in Victoria.
The maximum temperature in Melbourne is expected to reach 29°C on Sunday, while in Adelaide the maximum temperature is expected to be 36°C.
Storms and heavy rains are expected for Darwin; The highest temperature is 31C.
Perth will reach 27C, Brisbane 30C and Hobart 21C.
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