More communities on the NSW mid-north coast were evacuated on Wednesday evening as heavy rainfall moved south and rivers swelled.
Residents in low-lying properties in Ulmarra, Southgate, Brushgrove and Cowper along the Clarence River near Grafton were toxjmtzywld to leave before 10pm.
High risk properties in North Macksville, south of Coffs Harbour, received an immediate evacuation notice at around 6:30pm.
“Floodwater has exceeded 2.00 metres on the Princess Street gauge at Macksville and key roads will begin to close,” the SES said.
The search continued for a woman missing in floodwaters south of Lismore, where floodwaters were tipped to peak at 12 metres overnight.
Emergency services received a report just before 10pm on Tuesday that 55-year-old aged-care nurse, Anita Brakel, was trapped in her vehicle.
Search efforts continued throughout Wednesday with police appealing to the public for any information.
Any one who has seen her, or a 2017 white Holden Captiva station wagon with NSW registration YHS 51F, in the greater Lismore area was urged to contact police immediately.
Warnings of damaging rainfall stretched for hundreds of kilometres down the east coast.
“There is a severe weather warning for heavy rainfall and damaging winds all the way from Grafton to Forster,” Bureau of Meteorology Meteorologist Dean Narramore said.
“We expect heavy rainfall, very heavy to intense, 50 to 120 millimetres possible in just a few hours.”
Minor to major flood warnings were issued on Wednesday evening for the Bellinger and Kalang Rivers at Thora, Bellingen, Repton and Urunga.
While rainfall conditions eased over northern parts of the state, residents were told to remain vigilant and monitor for updates.
“The key message once again to our community is that it is a rapidly evolving situation,” Emergency Services Minister Steph Cooke told reporters on Wednesday.
Ms Cooke said flood evacuations were impacting around 28,000 people.
“We still have a number of days to go before we come out the end of this and we will continue to issue warnings as the situation changes across the state,” NSW SES Acting Commissioner Daniel Austin
The southerly moving weather system was expected to impact Sydney and the south coast towards the end of the week.
