A man walks in front of the Harbour Bridge during rainfall in Sydney
(Picture: AFP via Getty Images)Sydney was pummelled by torrential rain on Thursday as authorities warned thousands of residents to evacuate their homes.
The city received nearly a month’s rain overnight, turning suburban roads into rivers.
Residents of a nursing home were evacuated as emergency crews urged the city's 5 million residents to avoid unnecessary travel and brace for possible evacuations.
New South Wales state emergency services said they had received 680 requests for assistance and conducted 25 flood rescues.
“This is a highly dynamic situation. These events are moving exceptionally quickly,” New South Wales emergency services Acting Commissioner Daniel Austin said during a media briefing.
“Exceptionally sharp, short bursts of rain” have been creating flash flooding almost every hour, he said.
Dee Why this morning #nswrain pic.twitter.com/zIR6oOqETn
— Dale Drinkwater (@DaleDrinkwater) April 6, 2022
Pictures showed cars submerged in flooded roads, while footage uploaded to social media captured what appeared to be a whirlpool forming in the NSW city of Wollongong.
A man was rescued by emergency services after being swept away by floods in a northwest suburb of Sydney, local media reported.
Sydney has received 1,227mm of rain so far this year, more than its average annual rainfall of 1,213mm. Over the next 24 hours, many coastal towns could get up to 180 mm, the Bureau of Meteorology said.
Businesses have begun to clear out essentials in order to mitigate their losses.
“All hands are on deck to try and save some furniture ... so we have been pretty busy lifting things up ... moving things away, unplugging filters and electricity, and things like that,” Nicola Gilfillan, a cafe owner in southwest Sydney, told ABC television.
A severe weather warning remains in place along a 600km stretch of the NSW southern coast, but authorities said that conditions could ease from Thursday morning.
Climate change is also widely believed to be a contributing factor to the severe weather, which has raised questions about how prepared Australia is.
