Greater Sydney facing 'life-threatening emergency' weather event as thousands told to evacuate

Thousands of people have been told to leave their homes across Sydney as a dangerous weather event, expected to linger until Tuesday, escalates. And the next 24 hours are critical.

Key points:

Multiple evacuation orders have been issued in NSW

Roads are to be avoided with weather expected to get worse

The community is asked to act as soon as they can and seek higher ground

Fears over the formation of an east coast low have materialised with Sydney, the Central Coast, the Hunter region, the South Coast and the Illawarra experiencing torrential rain, damaging winds, flash flooding, coastal erosion and riverine flooding.

Some areas have received more than 200 millimetres of rain with higher rainfalls of more than 350mm for parts of the Illawarra.

Daily rainfall in some places has exceeded their averages for July. In the 24 hours up to 9am Sunday, the highest total of 368mm was recorded at Brogers Creek just south-west of Wollongong.

Major flooding is occurring on the Hawkesbury River at North Richmond and may exceed the levels reached on three previous events — March 2021, March 2022 and April 2022.

The Windsor Bridge between Wilberforce Road and George Street is now closed, cutting off the direct link between northern Hawkesbury and Sydney.

It comes after the closures of the Richmond and Yarramundi bridges earlier today.

There are also fears the Georges River at Milperra Bridge may peak at about 4 metres in the next few hours and exceed its minor flood level of 2 metres at Picnic Point.

The Nepean River is now falling after peaking at 16.61 metres — exceeding the level reached in the March-April floods earlier this year.

However, major flooding is continuing at Menangle and moderate flooding at Camden and Wallacia.

The State Emergency Service (SES) has issued a number of evacuation orders including for parts of Camden, Chipping Norton, Georges Hall, Moorebank, Warwick Farm, Woronora, Bents Basin, Pleasure Point and Wallacia.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-07-03/thousands-told-evacuate-greater-sydney-emergency-weather-event/101204030