{"id":522808,"date":"2026-01-17T13:00:17","date_gmt":"2026-01-17T13:00:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/522808\/"},"modified":"2026-01-17T13:00:17","modified_gmt":"2026-01-17T13:00:17","slug":"woman-dies-after-tree-falls-on-her-car-south-of-wollongong-as-winds-and-rain-lash-nsw-coast","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/522808\/","title":{"rendered":"Woman dies after tree falls on her car south of Wollongong as winds and rain lash NSW coast"},"content":{"rendered":"

A woman has died after being struck by a falling tree branch on Macquarie Pass south of Wollongong on Saturday afternoon as damaging winds and heavy rainfall lash New South Wales.<\/p>\n

Emergency services were called to the Illawarra Highway, near Clover Hill Road, just before 4pm after a tree branch fell onto the roadway and onto a passing vehicle.<\/p>\n

A male front-seat passenger suffered minor injuries, while two rear-seat passengers were unhurt.<\/p>\n

Macquarie Pass is expected to remain closed for several hours as police investigate and prepare a report for the coroner.<\/p>\n

Earlier, the NSW State Emergency Service said that more than 700 emergency volunteers were responding to hundreds of calls for assistance across the state.<\/p>\n

A number of severe weather warnings are in place across the state, with Mona Vale and Palm Beach bearing the brunt of flash flooding on Sydney’s Northern Beaches.<\/p>\n

There have been four rescues across NSW in the past 24 hours, with some trapped in vehicles surrounded by floodwaters.<\/p>\n

\"Tree<\/p>\n

The state emergency service has received hundreds of calls for assistance. (ABC News: Tamara Penniket)<\/p>\n

Thunderstorms, strong winds and hail are also likely in the Central Coast and Mid North Coast regions, where rainfall could reach up to 120 millimetres in the next 24 hours.<\/p>\n

Almost 200mm of rain has fallen in Moruya in the state’s far south coast over the past 48 hours, with emergency services responding to dozens of incidents.<\/p>\n

Videos posted to social media from Avalon in the northern beaches and the Central Coast shows extensive flooding on roads, with a Woolworths car park at Umina under water.<\/p>\n

NSW State Emergency Service Superintendent Matt Kirby said there were hundreds of volunteers working to respond to almost 900 incidents.<\/p>\n

He said much of the work would focus on clearing fallen trees and repairing damaged and leaking roofs.<\/p>\n

Loading…<\/p>\n

Mr Kirby said the severe weather was not expected to ease until at least Sunday.<\/p>\n

“We are anticipating that this rain will stay around the coastal areas of the Central Coast, Sydney and Illawarra for today and tomorrow,”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

he said.<\/p>\n

“We remind people not to drive through floodwaters and also be wary of where you park your vehicles, as trees can fall at any time.”<\/p>\n

Some Sydney beaches closed\"Choppy<\/p>\n

A number of Sydney beaches were closed on Saturday due to dangerous weather conditions.\u00a0 (ABC News)<\/p>\n

A week after beaches were packed with people escaping temperatures of more than 40 degree Celsius, a number of swimming spots have been closed, including Coogee, Bronte, Tamarama and Maroubra beaches.<\/p>\n

Bondi Beach was one of the few to remain open on Saturday, but NSW Surf Life Saving chief executive Steven Pearce said conditions were dangerous across the coast.<\/p>\n

“It was forecast to be really hazardous conditions, big swells, really gale force winds and that’s exactly what we’re seeing, even down here at Bondi today,”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

he said.<\/p>\n

“It is taking a lot of resources just to watch some swimmers, but the majority of other beaches are closed.<\/p>\n

\"Steve<\/p>\n

Steven Pearce warned against swimming at unpatrolled beaches. (ABC News)<\/p>\n

“You would be completely mad if you decided to go into these conditions, except where there is a patrolled beach that is open where there are professional lifeguards and lifesavers there on duty.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Mr Pearce said there have been no reported drownings or serious incidents along the NSW coast.<\/p>\n

He added that authorities would continue to assess conditions before a decision was made to reopen all beaches on Sunday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A woman has died after being struck by a falling tree branch on Macquarie Pass south of Wollongong…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":522809,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[4740,232542,20531,232539,50,9645,24174,169663,70365,24171,232541,232543,209863,94977,26180,11040,232540,7160,69398,48927,99290,187553],"class_list":{"0":"post-522808","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news","8":"tag-australia","9":"tag-beach-closed","10":"tag-bom","11":"tag-newcastle-weather","12":"tag-news","13":"tag-nsw-news","14":"tag-nsw-ses","15":"tag-rain-radar","16":"tag-ses","17":"tag-severe-weather-warning","18":"tag-storm-warning","19":"tag-sydney-beach-closed","20":"tag-sydney-news","21":"tag-sydney-rain","22":"tag-sydney-weather","23":"tag-thunderstorm","24":"tag-weather-bom","25":"tag-weather-forecast","26":"tag-weather-radar","27":"tag-weather-today","28":"tag-weather-tomorrow","29":"tag-weather-warning"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115910569226731617","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/522808","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=522808"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/522808\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/522809"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=522808"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=522808"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=522808"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}