Sydney flooding: More rain forecast as residents return to Marrickville apartment after evacuation

Updated

Sorry, this video has expired Video: Flash flooding on Parramatta Road at Leichhardt (ABC News)

Heavy rains in Sydney delivered flash flooding chaos, resulting in the collapse of a Tennyson Point house and 13 SES rescues.

Residents of a Marrickville apartment block who were earlier evacuated over fears it would collapse have been given the all clear to return.

The foundations of the Ewart Street building were thought to be unstable due to the collapse of an adjacent waterhole and 17 residents left following the warning.

The administrator of the Inner West Council, Richard Pearson, said the building had since been examined by two engineers and declared safe.

He said council would return to the site on Wednesday and stabilise the area that had been washed away in the heavy rain.

"Obviously we need to have a more thorough look into the reasons why this happened in order to prevent it happening again in the future," he said.

On Tuesday afternoon, the Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) forecast a heavy rain for the Sydney area in the evening, with a chance of thunderstorms along the coast.

A single-storey home at Tennyson Point in the city's central north also collapsed in the deluge but no-one was home at the time.

Photos taken by the ABC show the roof of the building has completely caved in, with debris scattered around the cordoned-off building.

"I've spoken to firefighters on the ground there and they believe the home will have to be completely rebuilt," Acting Superintendent Pescud said.

Parts of Sydney experienced flash flooding this morning, with 49 millimetres falling in Marrickville within one hour and 45mm in Canterbury, BOM said.

Observatory Hill has had a total of 51mm since 9:00am, with 35mm falling within an hour.

Ms Gollings said SES volunteers had responded to 13 separate flood rescues around Glebe, Marrickville, Alexandria and Zetland.

She said those people were caught by surprise but were now safe.

"All of those rescues have involved people caught in their cars in floodwater," she said.

"The water did rise quite rapidly we had quite a downpour over a matter of hours really, causing roads to flood quite quickly.

"It's concerning for us that people are putting themselves in danger. We just want them to stay out of floodwaters."

About 1,400 homes and businesses in parts of Lane Cove and 700 customers around Redfern and Surry Hills lost power today but crews have now reconnected all those affected.

On King Street, rain forced the evacuation of the Supreme Court building and dozens of people, including those involved in criminal trials, were ordered to leave.

An alarm was triggered and stormwater could be seen leaking into parts of the historic building, although it has now reopened to the public.

Roads were inundated while some shops reported at least two inches of water on their floors.

There are buses replacing ferries between Parramatta and Rydalmere, as the Parramatta weir overflows.

Topics: weather, storm-event, sydney-2000

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