After a bomb day of thunder and rain, NSW comes alive

After heavy rains hit parts of the Illawarra and Greater Sydney, streets turned into rivers, cars washed away and even floating in the sea.

Hundreds of millimeters of rain and flash floods hit the south coast of New South Wales on Thursday, causing dangerous landslides and road closures.

A video posted on the Illawara Weather Warnings Facebook page showed floodwaters engulfing roads and submerging cars.

It was raining so hard that the slope turned into a small cascading waterfall.

Bundeena and Main Bar south of Sydney have been cut off.

In Stanwell Park, near Wollongong, a car was filmed in a flooded river as it was washed out to sea.

State Emergency Services said it had responded to more than 1,300 calls for help across NSW and provided 65 rescues.

The Illawarra region was the hardest hit, stating that there were 350 incidents and 21 flood reliefs in the region.

the school was evacuated

Wollongong’s Edmund Rice University was evacuated after flooding and Touraj Public School contacted parents around noon asking them to collect their children early because of the storm.

Inland, towns such as Orange, Mudgee, Bathurst, Dubbo, Wellington and Ningan were at risk from severe storms.

In November, around 20,000 residents of central western NSW, mostly in Bathurst, were without hot water for showering or ovens for cooking for weeks after a critical gas pipeline flooded. .

SES State Duty Commander Colin Malone said it was important for people to stay up to date on warnings and monitor the situation before driving.

Cyclone Gabriel intensifies

Cyclone Gabriel is expected to intensify to Category 3 as it hits the North Island of New Zealand and rages towards Norfolk Island.

The system is expected to strengthen to Category 3 on Friday morning, with winds of 165 km/h to 224 km/h, increasing speed and strength, according to the Bureau of Meteorology.

The system’s orbit has shifted and is expected to land on Norfolk Island late Saturday or early Sunday.

Norfolk residents prepare for gusts of wind up to 140 km/h, heavy rains, extreme storm surges and surf.

“Tropical Cyclone Gabriel is expected to gain strength and gain speed on a southeasterly trajectory over the next day or two, which could cause Cyclone to reach near or over Norfolk Island on Saturday and Sunday. will be very high,” said BOM Alert.

The storm is forecast to continue moving southeast out of the tropics over the weekend, reaching New Zealand between Sunday and Tuesday.

WeatherWatch.co.nz said on Thursday, “No official warning has been confirmed so far. Data from this morning show that severe weather is very likely for much of the North Island. .

“If this current model becomes a reality, this is likely to be the most severe storm to hit New Zealand this century, with Auckland in particular having mixed potential for a direct hit.”

Heavy rain and strong winds are also expected to hit the upper South Island.

The cyclone threat came less than two weeks after Auckland was hit by historic levels of rain, killing four people and causing widespread flooding and landslides.