January 17, 2026<\/a><\/p>\nThe evacuation was ordered the previous night as the dangers escalated quickly with rapidly rising floodwaters impacting properties, forcing locals and holiday makers to get to higher ground.<\/p>\n
Floodwaters at Narrabeen are expected to take several days to recede.<\/p>\n
The NSW State Emergency Service made 25 rescues of people trapped in floodwaters across the state, many in Sydney, as cars became submerged on inundated roadways.\u00a0<\/p>\n
At Great Mackerel Beach, an isolated outpost on the northern beaches accessible only by boat, a landslide damaged numerous homes and at least one person was injured.<\/p>\n
The storm system claimed the life of a woman on Saturday after a tree branch fell on her car.\u00a0<\/p>\n
At least 1000 SES volunteers were on the ground on Sunday responding to weekend call-outs, with the busiest units in the south coast, Illawarra, Sydney and Hunter regions.<\/p>\n
NSW SES spokeswoman Emily Barton told AAP rain had been experienced “far and wide” across the state.\u00a0<\/p>\n
As of 10am on Sunday, she said crews had responded to over 2100 incidents, mostly in Sydney and the surrounding area.<\/p>\n
“We’ve got about 1000 SES volunteers that have been active during this operational response, and they remain ready to respond to any further calls for assistance,” Ms Barton said.<\/p>\n
“We’ve got high-clearance vehicles and flood rescue teams that are on standby, particularly through metropolitan Sydney and the Central Coast regions, where we’re expecting to see the rainfall continue today.<\/p>\n
“But storms are possible anywhere north of Wollongong and thunderstorms could bring those isolated, intense rainfalls that we saw late last night in the northern beaches and the Central Coast.”<\/p>\n
Ms Barton said clean-up efforts would continue over the next 24 to 48 hours, with further severe thunderstorms forecast for later in the week.<\/p>\n
Warnings remain in place for hazardous surf on the east coast at beaches stretching from Newcastle to Batemans Bay, as well as the Eden coast.<\/p>\n
Senior meteorologist Edward Townsend-Medlock said more heavy rain was expected from Sydney’s northern suburbs through to the Hunter Coast on Sunday morning.<\/p>\n
“Within that concentrated area is where you could get some of those more severe thunderstorm cells that we saw, for example, on the Central Coast,” he said.<\/p>\n
Queensland also copped wild weather as a band of thunderstorms rolled across the southeast, dumping up to 60mm and leaving about 11,000 properties without power.\u00a0<\/p>\n
More than 2000 properties were still without electricity at Laidley and Brightview in Queensland’s Lockyer Valley region on Sunday as winds damaged homes and brought down trees.<\/p>\n