Severe storms hit New South Wales by Sean Batty
Severe storms have been battering Australia’s east coast over the last few days and in particular New South Wales.
Five people have so far been confirmed dead with several still missing on Saturday morning (local time) as the wild storms continued to lash the coast, smashing boats, flooding roads and cutting power to hundreds of thousands.
Extremely rough seas have made for difficult shipping conditions and so far damaged 12 pleasure craft moored in Sydney’s harbour, while a massive coal freighter ran aground further north near Newcastle. There are fears that the freighter could break up and cause an environmental disaster.
With Australia beginning a long holiday weekend, officials have strongly advised people to scrap plans to travel as a number of the major roads are still closed after being flooded.
The Bureau of Meteorology (Australia’s national weather service) said that the storms dumped an incredible 300mm (12 inches) of rain in places, while winds gusted to around 75mph.
The weather had eased slightly by Saturday morning (local time) giving the emergency services time to catch up and deal with some of the 5,000 calls for assistance made over the past few days.
The low pressure system which brought the storms is now moving offshore and the Bureau of Meteorology is forecasting that the strong winds and heavy thundery showers will ease on Sunday.
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