Australia’s east coast is being smashed by summer storms as residents are told to evacuate.
An emergency warning was in place for Sydney’s northern beaches on Sunday morning, with residents at Narrabeen Lagoon and surrounds told to leave.
More than a dozen people have been rescued across Sydney, with cars submerged and homes flooded.
At Great Mackerel Beach, in the northern beaches, a landslide damaged numerous homes with at least one woman injured.
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The storm system also claimed the life of a woman on Saturday after a tree branch fell on her car and State Emergency Service crews received more than 800 calls for help after heavy rain lashed New South Wales.
Senior meteorologist Edward Townsend-Medlock said more heavy rainfall was expected from Sydney’s northern suburbs through to the Hunter coast on Sunday morning.
“Within that concentrated area is where you could get some of those more severe thunderstorm cells that we saw, for example, on the Central Coast,” he said.
At least 750 SES volunteers were on the ground responding to weekend storm callouts, with the busiest units in the south coast, Illawarra, Sydney and Hunter regions.
NSW SES spokeswoman Emily Barton said rain had been experienced “far and wide” across the state.
Crews would focus on the Blue Mountains, Central Coast and Sydney metropolitan area on Sunday as clean-up efforts continued, she said.
Warnings remained in place for hazardous surf on the east coast at beaches stretching from Newcastle to Batemans Bay, as well as the Eden coast.
A woman died during the storms on Saturday afternoon when a tree branch fell on her car on Macquarie Pass, south of Wollongong.
“The woman was a driver in the vehicle when the incident happened,” NSW police said.
A man in the front seat passenger suffered minor injuries, and two passengers in the rear seats were not physically harmed.
Queensland also copped a bout of wild weather as a band of thunderstorms rolled across the south-east, dumping up to 60mm and leaving about 11,000 properties with power.
More than 2,000 properties are still without power in Laidley and Brightview, in Queensland’s Lockyer Valley region after wild weather took roof’s off homes and brought down trees.
In Victoria, sunny skies were expected on the first day of the Australian Open’s main draw.
Melbourne was set to reach a high of 29C on Sunday, while Adelaide was expected to be a scorcher with a top of 36C.
Storms and heavy rain were forecast for Darwin, with a high of 31C.
Perth was set to reach 27C, Brisbane 30C and Hobart 21C.