Hawkesbury River residents given all clear to return home after floods
Major flooding has eased on the Hawkesbury River with the NSW State Emergency Services issuing an “all clear” at 1pm today.
It is now safe for residents to return to properties bounded by the Hawkesbury River, Berdenarang Gully, Pitt Town Lagoon, McKenzies Creek and South Creek.
The message also applies to the area on the Hawkesbury River bounded by Kurrajong Road, the back of Francis Street, the back of Dight Street, Percival Street and Rickabys Creek.
It also includes Bensons Lane, Cornwallis Road, Corwells Lane, Cupritts Lane, Got Lane, Ingolds Lane, Old Kurrajong Road; Onus Lane; Percival Street; Powells Lane; Ridges Lane and Triangle Lane.
An evacuation order remains in place for the low-lying areas of Freemans Reach along the Hawkesbury ten days after thousands of people were forced to flee rising water levels.
The area was among the worst affected by the state’s flooding crisis with the river reaching levels not seen for 60 years.
Over the course of the floods, the NSW coast has been drenched by at least 200 millimeters of rain, and in some places, more than 400 millimeters.
This is more than three times the Sydney average for the whole of March.
The flooding stretches 600 kilometres from Sydney to the Northern Rivers.
The Bureau of Meteorology’s Victoria Dodd said the state had experienced “the most significant floods in decades”.
