{"id":418740,"date":"2026-01-17T08:57:09","date_gmt":"2026-01-17T08:57:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/418740\/"},"modified":"2026-01-17T08:57:09","modified_gmt":"2026-01-17T08:57:09","slug":"woman-dies-after-tree-falls-on-her-car-south-of-wollongong-as-winds-and-rain-lash-nsw-coast","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/418740\/","title":{"rendered":"Woman dies after tree falls on her car south of Wollongong as winds and rain lash NSW coast"},"content":{"rendered":"

A woman has died after being struck by a falling tree branch on Macquarie Pass south of Wollongong on Saturday afternoon as damaging winds and heavy rainfall lash New South Wales.<\/p>\n

Emergency services were called to the Illawarra Highway, near Clover Hill Road, just before 4pm after a tree branch fell onto the roadway and onto a passing vehicle.<\/p>\n

A male front-seat passenger suffered minor injuries, while two rear-seat passengers were unhurt.<\/p>\n

Macquarie Pass is expected to remain closed for several hours as police investigate and prepare a report for the coroner.<\/p>\n

Earlier, the NSW State Emergency Service said that more than 700 emergency volunteers were responding to hundreds of calls for assistance across the state. \u00a0<\/p>\n

A number of severe weather warnings are in place across the state, with Mona Vale and Palm Beach bearing the brunt of flash flooding on Sydney’s Northern Beaches.<\/p>\n

There have been four rescues across NSW in the past 24 hours, with some trapped in vehicles surrounded by floodwaters.<\/p>\n

\"Tree<\/p>\n

The state emergency service has received hundreds of calls for assistance. (ABC News: Tamara Penniket)<\/p>\n

Thunderstorms, strong winds and hail are also likely in the Central Coast and Mid North Coast regions, where rainfall could reach up to 120 millimetres in the next 24 hours.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Almost 200mm of rain has fallen in Moruya in the state’s far south coast over the past 48 hours, with emergency services responding to dozens of incidents.<\/p>\n

Videos posted to social media from Avalon in the northern beaches and the Central Coast shows extensive flooding on roads, with a Woolworths car park at Umina under water.<\/p>\n

NSW State Emergency Service Superintendent Matt Kirby said there were hundreds of volunteers working to respond to almost 900 incidents.<\/p>\n

He said much of the work would focus on clearing fallen trees and repairing damaged and leaking roofs.<\/p>\n

Loading…<\/p>\n

Mr Kirby said the severe weather was not expected to ease until at least Sunday.<\/p>\n

“We are anticipating that this rain will stay around the coastal areas of the Central Coast, Sydney and Illawarra for today and tomorrow,” he said.<\/p>\n

“We remind people not to drive through floodwaters and also be wary of where you park your vehicles, as trees can fall at any time.”<\/p>\n

Some Sydney beaches closed\"Choppy<\/p>\n

A number of Sydney beaches were closed on Saturday due to dangerous weather conditions.\u00a0 (ABC News)<\/p>\n

A week after beaches were packed with people escaping temperatures of more than 40 degree Celsius, a number of swimming spots have been closed, including Coogee, Bronte, Tamarama and Maroubra beaches.<\/p>\n

Bondi Beach was one of the few to remain open on Saturday, but NSW Surf Life Saving chief executive Steven Pearce said conditions were dangerous across the coast.<\/p>\n

“It was forecast to be really hazardous conditions, big swells, really gale force winds and that’s exactly what we’re seeing, even down here at Bondi today,” he said.<\/p>\n

“It is taking a lot of resources just to watch some swimmers, but the majority of other beaches are\u00a0closed.<\/p>\n

\"Steve<\/p>\n

Steven Pearce warned against swimming at unpatrolled beaches. (ABC News)<\/p>\n

“You would be completely mad if you decided to go into these conditions, except where there is a patrolled beach that is open where there are professional lifeguards and lifesavers there on duty.”<\/p>\n

Mr Pearce said there have been no reported drownings or serious incidents along the NSW coast.<\/p>\n

He added that authorities would continue to assess conditions before a decision was made to reopen all beaches on Sunday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A woman has died after being struck by a falling tree branch on Macquarie Pass south of Wollongong…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":418741,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,220689,61838,220687,44,5847,64671,149594,33608,219490,164707,220690,182874,64224,45232,74668,220688,13739,184358,211217,184357,139636],"class_list":["post-418740","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-beach-closed","tag-bom","tag-newcastle-weather","tag-news","tag-nsw-news","tag-nsw-ses","tag-rain-radar","tag-ses","tag-severe-weather-warning","tag-storm-warning","tag-sydney-beach-closed","tag-sydney-news","tag-sydney-rain","tag-sydney-weather","tag-thunderstorm","tag-weather-bom","tag-weather-forecast","tag-weather-radar","tag-weather-today","tag-weather-tomorrow","tag-weather-warning"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/418740","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=418740"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/418740\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/418741"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=418740"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=418740"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=418740"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}