HOPES were fading last night for seven people swept away in a deluge of wild storms and gale force winds that pounded the state yesterday.
Desperate search and rescue efforts failed to find a family-of-five who were missing after a section of highway collapsed on the Central Coast.
Also missing was an elderly couple whose car was swept from a flooded bridge in the Hunter.
At Somersby on the Central Coast, a sedan carrying two adults and three children, aged two, three and nine, from the Central Coast, was washed into a roaring torrent when a section of the Old Pacific Highway collapsed about 4pm yesterday.
A huge fissure about 10m wide and up to 40m deep opened across the road, swallowing the car. The collapse was blamed on a record-breaking deluge across the state in the past 24 hours.
The family's empty sedan was last night found in treacherous floodwaters 100m down the swollen Piles Creek.
"We are searching in almost impossible conditions," Detective Chief Inspector Darren Bennett said last night.
"We are praying for a miracle but we do have grave concerns.
"The road basically gave way under a torrent of water."
Insp Bennett said witnesses did report a bystander going into the crack in the road to try and find the car.Hunter Valley was put on high alert after 130mm of rain fell in the area, with flood warnings issued for the nearby Paterson and Williams rivers.
Warragamba dam, Sydney's major water supply, has received 20mm in just six hours since 9am yesterday.
Turramurra received 30mm, with 26mm at Wedderburn and 34mm at Woronora Dam in Sydney's south.
A BoM spokesman said some of the falls have broken 30-year records in some areas.
"With the sort of rainfall totals we have been getting, that's on the cards in some places," the spokesman said.
The heavy rains delayed planes at Sydney airport and three airport construction workers were taken to hospital after a lightning strike yesterday morning. They suffered electric shocks and were taken to St George and Prince of Wales hospitals to undergo tests for any major heart damage.
Wild seas whipped up by the storm front ripped the bulk carrier Pasha Bulker from its moorings, with the 40,000-tonne vessel running aground off Newcastle's Nobbys Beach.
It is feared the vessel will break up on Big Ben Reef as 17m sea waves continually pound the ship – which is carrying more than 700 tonnes of fuel and oil.
NSW Fire Brigade crews and environmental experts were on standby as the sickly sweet stench of fuel mixedwith sea air and the first signs of contamination began to wash up on the beach.
Helicopters winched the 22 Filipino and Korean crew from the 225m-long coal carrier to safety from the deck of the stricken ship, with two suffering hypothermia.
Westpac Rescue helicopter crewman Glen Ramplin, who was lowered to the deck 22 times to rescue each of the crew, said they were the worse conditions he had ever seen.
"There was a lot of oil on the deck and with the strength of the wind out there it would have been very easy to just get blown off," he said.
Earlier, a woman, 33, and her son, 6, clung to a tree until they were rescued from a flooded creek at Wattle Ponds, near Singleton.
Their vehicle was trapped as they attempted to cross a flooded causeway about 8.25am but they escaped unharmed.
The town of Dungog in the Hunter Valley was put on high alert after 130mm of rain fell in the area, with flood warnings issued for the nearby Paterson and Williams rivers.
Water in the Williams River at Dungog was expected to pass the major flood level of 8.5m late yesterday.
The rains delayed planes at Sydney airport and three airport construction workers were taken to hospital after a lightning strike.
They suffered electric shocks which travelled up their legs, and were taken to St George and Prince of Wales hospitals to undergo tests for any major heart damage.
The extreme sea conditions across the mouth of Sydney Harbour forced the cancellation of Manly ferry and JetCat services due to swells up to 5m.
The State Emergency Service fielded more than 200 calls an hour for a total of 1200 pleas for help yesterday.
School students were advised to go home early in the worst affected areas around Newcastle, the Central Coast and the Hunter.
In 24 hours, suburbs on Sydney's North Shore and in the northwest have received another 50mm of rain, after a similar dumping in the previous 24 hours.
Parts of the mid-North Coast received over 100mm while Mangrove Mountain recorded 147mm.
The northern part of the Warragamba catchment area, which supplies Sydney's water, received 30mm to 50mm.
The southern part of the catchment area has received less than 10mm.
Snow fell at Siding Spring Observatory, near Coonabarabran, and was moving into the New England Region but no snowfall was expected in the south for the opening weekend of the ski season.
Snow depth has been recorded at 20.3cm at Perisher.
The storms began on the mid-North Coast and moved through Newcastle, the Central Coast and Sydney as they headed south.
Significant falls were expected over Sydney and Illawarra catchment areas today.
