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Sydney battered with torrential rain causing major floods across city

Sydney has been hit with a massive storm with more than 100mm of rain falling in some parts of the city throughout the morning. Source: Twitter/ Richard Denyer

Sydney residents are being urged to “batten down the hatches” as torrential rain floods the city.

The New South Wales capital received over 100mm of rain in mere hours on Wednesday morning, around 20mm more than the usual average for the whole of November.

Local police have sent stern warnings to residents to be extra careful on the roads and not attempt to drive along flooded streets.

Meanwhile, those that were hoping to leave the city have been trapped in the airport, with only one runway in operation. Passengers have been forced to wait for the storm to pass, with 20 flights cancelled or delayed.

Not only has the rain flooded the city, but the severity of the storm has caused power outages across much of Sydney with Ausgrid confirming via Twitter over 5,200 customers are still waiting for power to be restored.

Many residents have taken to social media to share incredible photos and videos of the storm, as they attempted to travel to work.

Cars can be seen slowly moving down streets with water reaching well above the tyres on some of the vehicles. One man joked: “My gf is currently trying to swim to work”.

Rescue services have also been called to help pull people to safety after their cars became stuck in flood waters. 

Others captured photos of water seeping through the tiles of buildings as people work desperately to stop the flooding.

“Rain is pouring out of the walls at Woolworths Town Hall,” one person wrote on Twitter.

To which others joked: “Good grief! Grab a life vest!”. And: “I feel like that’s not meant to happen”. 

Train stations have also been flooded, making the situation all that more difficult for people on their morning commute. In other areas of Sydney trees continue to fall on top of power lines cars and houses.

“Stations flooded, powerlines and trees down as well as homes inundated with water,” Marks Weather wrote on Twitter.

According to the ABC, two police officers were injured when trying to help someone after a tree fell on their car. One of the officers was seriously injured with a suspected broken leg. 

Unfortunately, according to the Bureau of Meteorology this is only just the beginning of the wild weather with parts of the city including Cooks River in south-eastern Sydney possibly receiving up to 170mm throughout the afternoon.

The rain comes just a week after Sydney was hit with a massive dust storm that blanketed areas of NSW mirroring the major storm in 2009, which saw thousands of tons of dirt and soil lifted and dumped in the Sydney Harbour.

Many took the opportunity to capture the spectacular scene as the blanket of dust travelled through their towns and properties as it headed east. Caroline Bowen shared an outstanding photo of the storm on Twitter last Thursday morning from her property in regional NSW.

Read more: Sydney blanketed in dust as massive storm rolls in 

“Our skies are shrouded in pink-red-brown gritty particles from a dust storm sweeping from the central west of the state and across New South Wales,” she wrote on social media. “It reached the Blue Mountains on this morning and is heading towards Sydney.”

Have you felt the effects of the storm?

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