A woman has died after a tree branch fell onto her car on Macquarie Pass, south of Wollongong, as heavy rain and damaging winds battered the New South Wales coast and kept emergency crews busy across the state.
Police said the crash happened on Saturday afternoon on the Illawarra Highway near Clover Hill Road. Emergency services were called just before 4pm after the branch came down onto the roadway and hit a passing vehicle and the female driver died at the scene.
A man in the front seat suffered minor injuries and two passengers in the back were not physically injured. The road was expected to remain closed for several hours while police investigated and prepared a report for the coroner.
The fatality came as severe weather warnings remained in place for large stretches of the coast, with intense downpours causing flash flooding in parts of Sydney and rough seas forcing beach closures.
The NSW State Emergency Service said more than 700 volunteers were deployed as the agency worked through hundreds of requests for help including fallen trees, leaking roofs and flooded roads.
Superintendent Matt Kirby said crews were responding to nearly 900 incidents and urged people to take the warnings seriously.
Authorities said there had been four rescues across NSW in the past 24 hours including incidents involving vehicles surrounded by floodwater.
On Sydney’s Northern Beaches areas including Mona Vale and Palm Beach were hit by flash flooding with water running across roads and into low lying car parks.
Heavy rain also soaked the state’s far south coast where close to 200mm was recorded in Moruya over the past 48 hours that prompting dozens of callouts.
Further north, thunderstorms, strong winds and hail were forecast to continue around the Central Coast and Mid North Coast with rain totals of up to 120mm possible in the next day.
The weather system also disrupted travel and weekend plans. Sydney Airport experienced delays and councils and surf lifesavers moved to shut down stretches of coastline as conditions deteriorated.
