State police said on Sunday that emergency services are looking for a woman who was “swept away by floods” in heavy rain and snow in Australia (NSW).
NSW police said they received reports late Saturday that the Hunter Valley wine district north of Sydney was “trying to drive through the flood” “before it got stuck”.
The passenger was a woman believed to be in her 20s who was “swept away by floods” when she tried to leave the vehicle. The driver, a 27-year-old woman, managed to leave the car without being injured.
Police said a 40-year-old man was also swept away by floods after being trapped in a nearby tree. Emergency services eventually managed to pull him to shore and take him to the hospital.
Australia’s Meteorological Service on Sunday had flood warnings for the New South Wales area, including hunters. It also issued a serious weather warning to destroy the wind.
According to BOM data, heavy rain has been affecting the state, with 100 mm of rainfall recorded in some areas between 24 hours and Sunday morning.
“The bad weather has caused the state to flood the whole state,” the New South Wales Emergency Department (SES) said in an operation update on Sunday. The service said it is responding to more than 1,400 “events related to rainfall, thunderstorms and snow”.
On Saturday, SES said it encountered 100 cars at multiple locations along the New England Highway, from Queensland to New South Wales, with snowfall of up to 50 centimeters after “the unexpected part of the state”.
