Flood waters are mostly easing in NSW but the state is not out of danger yet as the epicentre of the crisis shifts to the Hunter region, after Greater Sydney dodged a bullet.
Heavy rainfall of up to 200mm hit the Hunter on Friday causing moderate to major flooding of the river system, with Gloucester, 120km north of Newcastle, most at risk.
"We are not past the danger period yet. The rivers are very high, fast-flowing," NSW SES Commissioner Carlene York said.
"There is a lot of debris and it is very dangerous out there."
SES crews responded to more than 700 calls for assistance overnight on Thursday and 13 flood rescues were conducted.
Bursts of heavy rainfall are forecast on Friday from the Illawarra up to the Hunter, according to the Bureau of Meteorology.
But while the low pressure system that brought hundreds of millimetres of rain and devastating flooding to multiple areas in NSW this week was easing on Friday, more bad weather is expected this weekend.
"We're looking at widespread shower and thunderstorm activity developing across much of eastern NSW from the Mid-North Coast all the way down to the Victorian border, and extending inland on Sunday and Monday," the BoM's Dean Narramore said.
"The shower and thunderstorm activity is likely to be more widespread on Sunday and include the Illawarra, the Central Coast, into the Hunter."
Flood-devastated communities, such as Lismore and Ballina in the state's north, could be hit with more wet weather in the coming days.
"These thunderstorms and isolated heavy showers create an additional risk to the community," Ms York said.
More than 280 Australian Defence Force members are being deployed to the Northern Rivers region to support a mammoth clean-up, working alongside around 600 police and emergency crew members.
Four MRH-90 Taipan helicopters are being deployed to Grafton, which was inundated earlier this week, to support disaster relief efforts including distributing food and transferring patients to hospitals, the Department of Defence said on Friday.
In addition, two Navy MH-60R Seahawk helicopters and two commercially contracted AW-139 helicopters - one at HMAS Albatross in Nowra and the other at RAAF Base Williamtown - are on hand for search and rescue operations across NSW.
Greater Sydney residents in the path of a spilling Warragamba Dam and flooding around the Hawkesbury and Nepean rivers got a reprieve on Thursday afternoon after being told water peaks would be less than those seen in March 2021.
"We have dodged a bit of a bullet with the rain, but there is still a lot of danger in this catchment," NSW Deputy Premier Stuart Ayres said on Friday.
"This has been a very close run thing, this could have been a catastrophic disaster."
But even with the temporary reprieve, the heavy rainfall has hit transport services.
Delays across the Sydney and regional train networks and roads are expected due to "debris in overhead wiring, trees blocking tracks, external power supply issues and signal equipment repairs", Transport for NSW said on Friday.
The floodwaters peaked around Windsor just below the major flood level but the BoM warns there's still a lot of water in the catchment with the potential for spillage.
People living in parts of Lower Portland and Cumberland Reach on the Hawkesbury River were on Friday told to evacuate and move to higher ground.
And people in the eastern part of Wisemans Ferry, 75km north west of Sydney, were told to get ready to evacuate as necessary.
Endeavour Energy said it is restoring power supply in areas where flooding has started to ease.
But for safety reasons it has cut off electricity to 915 low-lying properties along the Hawkesbury, Nepean and Colo Rivers as well as some adjoining creek catchments where floodwater has not receded.
The death toll from the NSW floods event remains at five, including four fatalities in the northwestern town of Lismore.
