Man drowns in Sydney flood waters amid fears "the worst is yet to come"
A man has drowned and tens of thousands of New South Wales residents have been warned to stay alert and ready to evacuate amid fears “the worst is yet to come”.
Horrific torrential rain is hammering the east coast of Australia with the wild weather expected to continue throughout the week.
Warragamba Dam has begun to spill at an extreme rate compared to the floods in March and April which has prompted the SES to order almost 32,000 people to evacuate their homes.
Overall, that is a total of 41 evacuation orders and 44 evacuation warnings issued to communities in the Illawarra, Western Sydney and Hawkesbury-Nepean areas.
Since the freaky weather hit, heroic SES members have responded to 3,111 requests for help and have rescued 137 people.
It comes as a man has died after being pulled unresponsive from the Parramatta River on Sunday afternoon.
Emergency services attempted to revive the man but were unsuccessful.
“We saw a helicopter out there with essentially a team of police jumping into the water, trying to save someone,” witness Luke Touma told 7NEWS.
NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet said the weather event is once again testing the resilience of NSW.
“It’s hard to put into words what some communities across NSW are going through, again," he said.
“We’re seeing distressing scenes from the flood zones across our state.
“Times like these are difficult. It will test our resilience. But it is also in these times that we see the best in people and the best in our communities.
“We have mobilised significant resources and all relevant agencies to get help to those in need. And we will pull together, as we always do, to get through this.”
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said that 100 ADF personnel are on standby to help.
“Our government is monitoring the NSW floods carefully and has already made ADF support available. If you live in an affected area, please follow the @NSWSES advice and make safe decisions.”
Images: 7News