20 rescued from floodwaters after severe storms hit Australia

More than 180,000 homes have been cut off from power and 20 people have been rescued because of a severe storm that has lashed the east coast of Australia on Tuesday.

Police said more than 20 people had to be rescued from floodwaters as storms continue to hit New South Wales (NSW) in what has been described as the wildest weather in five years.

Police said one woman suffered a heart attack after she was trapped on the roof of her home.

"The elderly female is in a critical condition and transported to hospital. We have other rescues on at the moment and in some of those situations we hold grave concerns for those persons," a police spokesman said.

The Upper Hunter region in NSW is believed to be one of the worst affected after 312mm of rain fell in 24 hours.

The Paterson River at Dungog has risen to 14.78m and is expected to rise to 15.5m Tuesday afternoon, which is higher than the 1978 flood peak.

Police said thousands of trees have fallen and hundreds of power lines are down, and firefighters have also dealt with 75 fires.

"This weather system isn't abating -- we still have cyclonic winds in that area," the police spokesman said.

"We're still seeing massive amounts of rainfall and so it's going to be a challenging and busy afternoon."

The Bureau of Meteorology has recorded wind speeds up to 1130km/ h and said more rain and strong winds will continue this week as another low pressure system builds off the NSW coast.

A Fire and Rescue spokesman said this week was one of its busiest on record. Endi