A COUPLE rescued from their car, peak-hour prangs, sandbags in the street, overflowing drains and water over the road in several areas – this was the Hunter's day of deluge.
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And it’s not over yet.
On Wednesday night, minor flood warnings were still in place for towns near the Williams River, including Dungog and Clarence Town.
It comes after Chichester copped the brunt of the deluge on Wednesday, recording 240mm of rain since 9am.
Dungog was next, with residents waking up to more than 100mm of rain which fell across the town overnight. More than 200mm was recorded in the town by the end of the day.
Remarkably, nearly 70mm of rain fell in the hour to 5am, prompting SES workers to door knock homes in low-lying areas as a precaution.
By noon, with the threat of local roads cut off by water, a decision was made to send students home from school early.
Dungog SES controller Ian Robinson said the community was not taking any risks with the memories of the fatal flood in 2015 still raw.
“We know the local roads can get cut and we don’t want to see the students isolated so we made the decision with the bus company to get them home now,” he said.
“We have level three flood technicians here, we are all on standby on call, ready to go. We are not just appearing to be here, we are here. We are very sensitive to the unfortunate incident in Dungog in 2015 and want people to know we are here for them.”
In Newcastle, which baked in temperatures that soared into the high-30s at the weekend, city workers were seen huddling under their umbrellas as persistent showers poured more than 70mm into the Nobbys rain gauge. In the city’s west, the stormwater drain behind Stockland Wallsend resembled a river rapid, with more than 150mm recorded by the afternoon.
There were headaches on the roads as authorities closed northbound lanes of the Pacific Highway at Gateshead, with other road closures at Warners Bay and Barnsley. All up, there were more than a dozen locations with water over the road in Lake Macquarie, with Eleebana recording 157mm at 4pm.
The SES said volunteers performed two water rescues. At Bennetts Green, two people were rescued from their car in floodwaters about noon. There were no injuries. At Edgeworth, there were reports of a parked car getting caught in floodwaters near McDonald’s.
Weatherwatch meteorologist Don White said Wednesday’s rain was still “significant” even though it wasn’t record-breaking.
“It’s not going to break any records, but it’s still a significant event. Persistent, heavy rain like this only happens once every couple of years,” the meteorologist said.
Wild weather to persist
POCKETS of the Hunter can still expect intense downpours on Thursday, meteorologists said.
The wild weather, caused by a coastal trough cradled between two strong high pressure systems, was expected to push north overnight, with the Mid North Coast and Northern Tablelands to cop the worst of it on Thursday, Weatherzone meteorologist Joel Pippard said.
However, Mr Pippard said lingering storm cells could dump between 80 and 100mm across the city by Thursday morning.
He said the Mid North Coast, including Forster, could receive about 200mm on Thursday, with intense rainfall also forecast for Chichester and Dungog.
The weather bureau was forecasting between 10 and 20mm for the drought-stricken Upper Hunter on Thursday.
Scone stock agent Peter MacCallum said the area was still “shockingly dry”. “There’s not much green around,” he said.
Meanwhile, residents in Stockton reported there was no major erosion on Wednesday.
A warning for boating remains in place.
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