Just a reminder NSW declared a natural disaster for the following areas since yesterday: Armidale Bellingen Central Coast Cessnock City Council Clarence Valley Coffs Harbour City Dungog Shire Kempsey Lake Macquarie City Maitland City Mid-Coast Nambucca Valley Newcastle City Port Macquarie-Hastings Port Stephens Tenterfield Queensland is sending crew to help out in NSW, the state’s premier, Annastacia Palaszczuk has said. Our photographer Mike Bowers has been up in Raymond Terrace north of Newcastle capturing some photos of the flooded areas. People are posting some photos of the floods in their areas. The federal member for Macquarie, Susan Templeman, is on ABC News. Her electorate encompasses much of the flood-affected areas in the Hawkesbury. She says there is a lot of anxiety about how much the Hawkesbury River will rise, and people are making preparations to evacuate, including getting animals out to evacuation centres: There is a real sense of calm. The Hawkesbury has had floods before and will have floods again, so people actually know what to do. They know to make arrangements, on Facebook you can see people getting offers from other friends to come to higher ground at their place. Over the last few days there has been a lot of activity around horses and alpacas, and the sorts of large animals that people keep out here on what is a semi-rural area, for much of it. So there is a lot of support between community members. There is anxiety, and the anxiety about not being sure just what level this flood will get to, how high it will go, what we are hearing is that it will be like the one a year or so ago, but possibly higher, and that will all depend on the amount of rain that we get over the next few days.” We are expecting a Bureau of Meteorology update at midday, and I’ve just received an alert that NSW premier Gladys Berejiklian will hold a press conference in Bankstown with NSW police and emergency services minister David Elliott and NSW State Emergency Service commissioner Carlene York at 1pm on the storm and flooding events across the state. Port Macquarie News reports a Facebook group set up to rescue livestock from the floods on New South Wales’ mid-north coast has already exceeded 1,000 members. There’s quite a few videos of cows being rescued. Federal government working with logistics companies on vaccine delivery The federal government is talking to freight and distribution companies over how the Covid-19 vaccine rollout will be impacted in rain-lashed NSW, AAP reports. Australia’s most populous state has been struck by heavy rains and flooding which is blocking roads. “Clearly there will be expected disruptions for many freight and logistic movements across NSW as a result of these floods. Vaccines will not be exempt from that,” finance minister Simon Birmingham told Sky News’ Sunday Agenda program. “So we are working with our freight and distribution companies who are getting the vaccine from point A to point B to just understand about what will be impacted” Vaccines ready for the phase 1b rollout – for people over 70, Indigenous Australians over 55, those with a medical condition or disability, and workers deemed high risk – are supposed to have been delivered across the country by the end of the weekend. NSW police say they have rescued two stranded bushwalkers in the Blue Mountains overnight and evacuated residents in four homes at Wallaroy Crescent in Woollahra. The first incident occurred when two bushwalkers returning from a camping trip along the Six-Foot Track at Katoomba became stranded by a waterfall that had formed on the track. The pair were rescued near Nelly’s Glen, with officers setting up ropes to get the walkers out in harnesses. In the second incident, residents of four houses were evacuated following a partial wall collapse. A resident noticed a 40-metre natural rock cliff face had shifted due to heavy rainfall and contacted emergency services. Police were concerned the rock wall would collapse and hit the nearby properties, so the residents were evacuated as a precaution after 8.30pm last night. Structural engineers declared one property was unsafe to return to until the wall was stabilised, while allowing residents of the three other houses to return home safely. Western Sydney University water scientist Ian Wright was on ABC News just before. He said we are in “unchartered territory” with the overflow of Warragamba dam because there has been an “enormous transformation” in the Hawkesbury Valley into an urban landscape that means a lot of people are now living in flood-prone land. “All the hard surfaces and pipes and plumbing, that changes the way that water has flowed and that has created much more potential for flash flooding and contributing to regional flooding. So we’re in a landscape now, this is unchartered territory, we got a lot more people living in a highly flood-prone area, and New South Wales state emergency service regard the Hawkesbury Valley as one of the most flood-prone areas in New South Wales, possibly Australia.” He said a lot of work had been done on evacuation roads as part of the development, but the influx of people into the area means they have not had to face a flood in the area yet. Hello, and welcome to our live coverage of the extreme weather affecting New South Wales for Sunday. I’m Josh Taylor and I will be bringing you all the latest on Sunday. Flood waters have hit hundreds of homes in Sydney, with evacuation orders in parts of north-western Sydney in place as river levels rise on the Hawkesbury-Nepean River after the Warragamba dam overflowed yesterday for the first time in five years. There is up to 100mm of rain forecast for greater Sydney today and tomorrow, with the Bureau of Meteorology warning the situation remains dangerous. The State Emergency Service is urging people to stay indoors and off the roads unless absolutely necessary. One bodyboarder remains missing. For more on the situation please read the article below.