Floods bring misery to thousands as heavy rain threatens more damage

SYDNEY • The flooding in New South Wales has damaged homes and businesses, affecting thousands of people, and there are fears the disaster could worsen with more heavy rain forecast for today.

Already swollen rivers have swamped towns along the NSW east coast with severe flooding expected to spread to the state's south coast today, piling misery on an area badly affected by last year's bush fires.

"The devastation is quite unbelievable," said Mr Marten Clark, a cafe owner in Port Macquarie who waded through waist-deep water to find his furniture washed away, and freezers, fridges and cooking equipment destroyed.

Further south in western Sydney, flood waters along the Nepean River rose beyond a peak set in 1961, flooding scores of homes.

Footage from an NSW Rural Fire Service helicopter showed parts of Sydney's north-west appearing to be like an inland sea.

"The water is still rising. It is scary, very eerie to say the least," said Ms Jo Dunstan, who owns a florist shop in the outer Sydney suburb of Windsor, as she watched debris-littered stormwater race past neighbouring homes.

In Penrith, in Sydney's west, home owner Jason Byrne said flood waters had risen swiftly on Sunday. Family and friends had rushed to help shift furniture from the downstairs living area to the upstairs rooms, he told the Sydney Morning Herald.

"I took one of my kids to gongfu and came back around 11.30am (Sunday). It was already up to the step and starting to damage the home office... It looks like a bomb's gone off in there. The fridge had floated, and it was on its side."

The national Bureau of Meteorology said the weather system causing the rain was set to intensify today. In a tweet yesterday, the weather bureau said around 10 million Australians in every mainland state and territory - except Western Australia - were under a weather warning as two major weather systems collide.

The Insurance Council of Australia has declared an insurance catastrophe after more than 5,000 claims were lodged at the weekend. Two major insurers said most of the claims they received concerned damage to property, with more claims expected.