George Wendt, an actor and comedian who was beloved for his performance as Norm Peterson on the long-running comedy series Cheers has died, his family announced.

He was 76.

"George was a doting family man, a well-loved friend and confidant to all of those lucky enough to have known him. He will be missed forever," a representative for the family said in a statement to CNN.

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A Chicago-native, Wendt got his start in acting when he joined in the famed improv school The Second City Mainstage in 1975. He earned six Emmy nominations throughout his nearly five decade Hollywood career.

While at The Second City, Wendt appeared in the revue One More with Fooling and spent time in the troupe's touring company.

He left in 1980 to pursue a film and television career.

In the early 1980s, Wendt began appearing in some of his first Hollywood roles, including in TV series Taxi, Alice and Making the Grade before landing his big break as Norm in Cheers in 1982.

The beloved NBC sitcom ran for 11 seasons and starred Wendt as the lovable, beer-gulping Norm alongside castmates Rhea Perlman, Ted Danson, Woody Harrelson, Shelley Long and Kelsey Grammer, among others.

Wendt earned six consecutive Emmy nominations between 1984 and 1989 in the supporting actor category for his performance as Norm on the series.

"George Wendt was the sweetest, kindest man I ever met. It was impossible not to like him," Perlman told CNN in a statement.

"As Carla, I was often standing next to him, as Norm always took the same seat at the end of the bar, which made it easy to grab him and beat the crap out of him at least once a week. I loved doing it and he loved pretending it didn't hurt. What a guy!"

She added: "I'll miss him more than words can say."

Wendt was one of three cast members to have appeared in every single episode of the show's run. (The others were Danson and Perlman.) The series ended in 1993.

In 2024 Wendt reflected on his time on the show.

"It was a great job," he said during an interview at the Motor City Comic Con.

"Oh my God, what a great job."

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His co-star, John Ratzenberger, who played Cliff Clavin on the show, joked that they felt like they were "stealing money" because they had so much fun on the show.

"We sat at a bar for 11 years cracking jokes," Ratzenberger said.

"Imagine seeing that ad in the newspaper: 'Looking for people to sit at a bar and crack jokes for a lot of money.'"

Wendt added: "Looking for a guy who wants another beer."

That led to him revealing that the "beer" they drank on the show was fake and not very good, but they would occasionally crack open the real stuff after the audience had left the taping.

Wendt didn't shy away from being the "big guy" on the hit series and spoke about relating to Norm during an episode of the Still Here Hollywood with Steve Kmetko podcast last year.

"I had to look like a guy who wanted another beer. That I can do!" he said. "So, I didn't have to put a whole lot of mustard on anything. It was pretty much just me with material supplied by some of the best comedy writers in Hollywood of the era. It was murderers' row."

A thriving television career

Wendt appeared in films like Dreamscape, Never Say Die and the 1992 film Forever Young alongside Mel Gibson, Jamie Lee Curtis and a young Elijah Wood.

But television proved to be a source of steady work.

Wendt appeared in guest roles on series, including Seinfeld, The Larry Sanders Show, St. Elsewhere and The Twilight Zone and The Little Rascals.

He also starred in his own series The George Wendt Show in 1995 and was a series regular on the first and only season of The Naked Truth in 1997.

Between 1991 and 2003, Wendt appeared on several episodes of Saturday Night Live to play the recurring character Bob Swerski, a diehard Chicago sports fan, alongside famed SNL alums Chris Farley, Mike Myers and Robert Smigel.

During the next two decades, Wendt racked up guest star credits: Sabrina the Teenage Witch, Portlandia, Kirstie, Fresh Off the Boat, Franklin & Bash and more.

In 2017, Wendt returned to his roots when he appeared in the I Can't Believe They Wendt There: The Roast of George Wendt at The Second City's Mainstage theatre in Chicago, an event hosted by the actor's nephew, Ted Lasso star Jason Sudeikis.

Wendt spoke last year about how "proud" he was of Sudeikis, who is the son of Wendt's sister Kathy Sudeikis, saying on the Still Here Hollywood podcast that he is "such a great kid" and "so smart, so thoughtful."

CNN has reached out to a representative for Sudeikis for comment on Wendt's passing.

Wendt's final credit, according to IMDb, was 2024's Love's Second Act, a TV movie starring Jodie Sweetin.

Wendt is survived by his wife Bernadette Birkett and his three children, Hilary, Joe and Daniel, who requested privacy through a representative.

Authorities have arrested an Orleans Parish Sheriff's Office employee following the escape of 10 inmates from a New Orleans jail, the Louisiana Attorney General's office said.

Sterling Williams, 33, a maintenance worker with the sheriff's office at the time of the escape, allegedly told investigators he had turned the water off in the cell from which the inmates escaped, according to the attorney general's office.

Williams was placed under arrest and booked into the Orleans Parish Jail but was then relocated to a different facility.

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The Plaquemines Parish Jail showed Williams under arrest on Tuesday morning.

He faces 10 counts related to the escapees and one count of malfeasance in office, due to the fact that he "acted under the order of an inmate," his arrest warrants states.

"This was a coordinated effort, aided by individuals inside our own agency, who made the choice to break the law," Orleans Parish Sheriff Susan Hutson said Tuesday at a meeting of the New Orleans city council's criminal justice committee.

Hutson noted the agency continues "to pursue everyone involved".

CNN is working to determine if Williams has an attorney.

The arrest comes after a fourth inmate who escaped from the jail Friday was captured Monday in the New Orleans East neighbourhood and flown to a "secure state facility," as hundreds of local, state and federal authorities scramble to find six still on the loose, according to Louisiana State Police.

All the escapees bolted out of a hole carved in the jail wall, sprinted across an interstate and vanished.

Still on the loose are: Corey Boyd, Jermaine Donald, Derrick Groves, Antoine Massey, Leo Tate and Lenton Vanburen.

The escapees face an array of charges, including aggravated assault with a firearm, false imprisonment with a weapon and murder.

"We cannot give additional details as to the supposed whereabouts of the remaining fugitives but we can say that we will follow any investigative leads no matter where they take us," Lieutenant Mindi MacHauer Keith with the Louisiana State Police told CNN.

The suspects took advantage of a faulty locking system, a jail employee who had stepped away to get food and a complex escape plan that may have involved inside help, authorities said.

And even though officials described the escapees as armed and dangerous, they didn't inform the public of the security breach for several hours.

Here's what we know about the escape, the multistate manhunt and who's blaming whom for the calamity that has caused some fearful residents and lawyers with the district attorney's office to flee.

'To Easy LoL'

A cascading series of "breakdowns" contributed to the escape, Orleans Parish District Attorney Jason Williams said Monday.

The Orleans Justice Centre went into lockdown at 10.30pm on Thursday, as it does every night, meaning inmates were expected to stay in their cells.

That didn't happen.

Shortly after midnight on Friday morning, a corrections monitoring technician stepped away for food.

During his absence, several inmates started yanking on the door of Cell Delta 1006.

A staff member should have been monitoring the cameras in the facility, Jason Williams said at a Monday news conference.

"The idea that they are saying they had to go back and look at footage is ridiculous," he said.

"Those monitors are there to be observed in real time."

Eventually, the door broke open.

The men snuck into another cell. In a matter of minutes, 10 inmates manoeuvred past a metal toilet, squeezed through a small hole carved in the wall and fled into the darkness.

One of the escapees directed Sterling Williams, the arrested jail maintenance worker, to turn the water off inside that cell, threatening to "shank him if he did not," he told investigators.

Instead of reporting the inmate, he turned the water off as directed, allowing for the successful escape, the attorney general's office said.

Investigators believe Sterling Williams "had multiple days of involvement," turning off the water supply for inmates to be able to cut the pipes on "more than just that night," Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill told FOX News on Tuesday.

The inmates brought blankets to protect themselves from getting cut by barbed wire.

They then scaled a fence and bolted across Interstate 10.

They darted into a nearby neighbourhood, ripped off their inmate clothes and disappeared into the night.

Before they escaped, they taunted jail staff with a message scrawled above their escape hole:

"To Easy LoL," it read.

The hole itself is one sign of the continued lapses at the facility, according to Jason Williams.

"Someone should have caught the destruction of the toilet and destruction of the wall and getting out, because that doesn't happen in a day, does it?" he went on.

"So, it was missed during the entire time that that plan was being hatched."

"This is not just about one lunch break," he added.

The escape wasn't discovered until a routine head count at 8.30am, Hutson said on Friday.

DA's staff members flee the city

Another failure: several hours elapsed before authorities notified the inmates' victims and witnesses and the public of the escape, the district attorney said.

"If it happened at 1 am they should have been notified at 1.30, right, because they were in harm's way," Jason Williams said.

The sheriff said she found out about the escape around 9am – eight hours after the inmates are thought to have escaped – and the US Marshals Task Force were notified by 9.30am.

The DA himself only found out about the jailbreak from the media, he said on Monday.

"I am personally afraid, not just for myself, but for my lawyers who tried the case against the individual twice," he said, referencing the case against Groves, the escapee who was convicted of murdering two men in 2018 after his first trial ended in a mistrial and a second trial ended in a deadlocked jury.

The DA had prosecuted Groves in his second and third trials.

"These lawyers got out of town this weekend with their families out of fear of retribution and retaliation," he said.

The DA said his office immediately began working with the chief of victims and witness services, Alison Morgado, to notify victims and witnesses of the escape.

Police helped relocate some, he said.

"They're very afraid, and I think they have a right to be afraid," he said.

Manhunt spreads to other states

Authorities initially said 11 inmates had escaped but later corrected the number to 10 after discovering one man had been moved to another cell before his records were updated.

So far, four men have been caught: Dkenan Dennis, Kendell Myles, Robert Moody and Gary Price.

All were recaptured in the New Orleans area.

The search for the remaining six escapees now involves more than 200 law enforcement personnel spanning the Orleans Parish Sheriff's Office, the New Orleans Police Department, Louisiana State Police, the US Marshals Service and the FBI.

Because the escapees may have crossed state lines, Murrill, the Louisiana attorney general, asked her counterparts in Texas, Mississippi, Arkansas, Georgia, Oklahoma and Tennessee to alert their law enforcement agencies.

The FBI's New Orleans office is offering a $US10,000 ($15,550) reward for information leading to the capture of each escapee, and Crime Stoppers is offering an additional $US5000 ($7780) for information leading to each arrest.

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives is offering an additional $5000 reward.

Sheriff's office admits lapse but blames infrastructure and staffing problems

Much of the criticism has focused on Hutson.

Louisiana state Rep. Aimee Adatto Freeman has called for the sheriff, also a Democrat, to resign, calling the escape "an alarming failure of leadership".

"Sheriff Susan Hutson's most fundamental responsibility is to keep inmates in custody – and she failed," Freeman said in a statement shared with CNN affiliate WDSU.

In response, the sheriff said she had "no plans to resign" in a statement shared with CNN.

"I remain committed to leading this office through the current crisis and continuing the long-term work of reform and public service I was elected to carry out."

Jason Williams, the district attorney, called the jailbreak "a complete failure of the most basic responsibilities entrusted to a sheriff or a jail administrator" in an interview with WDSU.

Hutson admitted a lapse in security, partially due to defective locks – and suggested prison employees may have participated.

"We do acknowledge there is no way people can get out of this facility without there being some type of lapse in security," Hutson said.

"It's almost impossible … for anybody to get out of this facility without help from the outside."

"These folks that were able to get out did so because of defective locks on the cells," the sheriff said at a Friday news conference.

She claimed she had been asking for funding to repair the locks since she started her position.

Additionally, "we have indication that these detainees received assistance in their escape from individuals inside of our department," she said.

The security breach happened on the first floor of the jail, where cells have sliding doors that "are able to be manipulated by force off the track that they're on, which allows individuals to enter and exit at will," Orleans Parish Chief of Corrections Jay Mallett said Friday.

"The primary security breach and concern is the facilities' infrastructure," Mallett said.

"We've identified that we have a large number of high-security individuals in a minimum custody facility."

The district attorney said dangerous inmates, like the men who escaped, shouldn't have had access to the first floor in the first place.

There's a "critical need" for repairs and upgrades at the jail to ensure doors and locks are fully functional, Hutson said.

"There are deficiencies in these facilities that cause public safety concerns," she said.

The sheriff's office's chief financial officer, Bianka Brown, said the budget would need to be increased from $68 million to $150 million.

The locks would cost $5.2 million.

And the jail has only about 60 per cent of the staffing it should, the sheriff said, and 150 more deputies are needed.

But if any staff members helped with the escape, they will be held accountable "both administratively and criminally," the sheriff said.

One Australian beach has made the list. of the top 25 nude beaches in the world, according to CNN. 

The world's ice sheets are on course for runaway melting, leading to multiple feet of sea level rise and "catastrophic" migration away from coastlines, even if the world pulls off the miraculous and keeps global warming to within 1.5 degrees Celsius, according to new research.

A group of international scientists set out to establish what a "safe limit" of warming would be for the survival of the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets.

They pored over studies that took data from satellites, climate models and evidence from the past, from things like ice cores, deep-sea sediments and even octopus DNA.

What they found painted a dire picture.

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The world has pledged to restrict global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels to stave off the most catastrophic impacts of climate change.

However, not only is this limit speeding out of reach — the world is currently on track for up to 2.9 degrees of warming by 2100. But the most alarming finding of the study, published Tuesday in the journal Communications Earth and Environment, is that 1.5 might not even be good enough to save the ice sheets.

Even if the world sustains today's level of warming, at 1.2 degrees, it could still trigger rapid ice sheet retreat and catastrophic sea level rise, the scientists found.

The Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets together hold enough fresh water to raise global sea levels by around 65 metres — an unlikely scenario but one that must be acknowledged to fully understand the risk.

Since the 1990s, the amount of ice they've lost has quadrupled; they are currently losing around 370 billion tonnes a year. Ice sheet melting is the dominant contributor to rising seas and the rate of annual sea level rise has doubled over the past 30 years.

It's set to get worse.

Multiple studies suggest 1.5 degrees of warming is "far too high" to prevent rapid ice sheet retreat that would be irreversible on human timescales, and the world should prepare for many feet of sea level rise over the coming centuries, according to the study.

"You don't slow sea level rise at 1.5, in fact, you see quite a rapid acceleration," said Chris Stokes, a study author and glaciologist at Durham University.

It's an existential threat to the world's coastal populations. Around 230 million people live less than 1 metre above sea level. Even small changes in the amount of ice held in the ice sheets will "profoundly alter" global coastlines, displacing hundreds of millions of people and causing damage that stretches the limits of adaptation, the study found.

Seas could surge by 1 centimetre a year by the end of the century, within the lifetimes of young people now, the scientists found.

At this level, which equates to 1 metre a century, "you're going to see massive land migration on scales that we've never witnessed since modern civilisation," said Jonathan Bamber, a study author and glaciologist at the University of Bristol.

There are still huge uncertainties about where tipping points lie. The way climate change unfolds is not linear and it's unclear exactly when warming might trigger rapid retreat and even collapse.

What's hugely concerning, the study authors say, is that the best estimates of "safe" temperature thresholds for saving the ice sheets keep going down as scientists better understand their vulnerability to climate change.

Early modeling suggested temperatures would need to hit around 3 degrees of warming to destabilise the Greenland ice sheet, for example, but recent estimates suggest it would only take around 1.5 degrees.

To avoid the rapid collapse of one of more ice sheets means limiting global warming to closer to 1 degree above pre-industrial levels, the study authors concluded.

This would require drastic cuts to the amount of fossil fuels humans burn, something which looks exceptionally unlikely as countries including the US continue to embrace oil, coal and gas.

The world is already starting to see some of the worst-case scenarios play out in terms of ice loss, Stokes said.

"There's very little that we're observing that gives us hope here," he said. "The absolute best-case scenario is that sea level rise is slow and steady," he added.

The findings don't mean the world should give up on climate targets, as every fraction of a degree of warming translates to worse impacts, Stokes said.

"Limiting warming to 1.5 will be a major achievement. It should absolutely be our target, but in no sense will it slow or stop sea level rise and melting ice sheets."

Moments after becoming a mother, Dusk Liney underwent a medical procedure that threw her back into "the darkest time" of her life.

The Victoria mum had sustained a third-degree tear during delivery and doctors stepped in to surgically repair it.

The procedure left her in "fight or flight" mode for days afterwards.

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"I didn't know what was being done to my body and when I asked for that to be shared with me, I was told that wasn't possible," Liney told 9news.com.au.

"I don't think that [some doctors] realise the power dynamic that they're in and how [it can] mirror the experience of abuse."

Liney was sexually abused as a child, an experience she sadly shares with about 11 per cent of Australian women.

Have you got a story? Contact reporter Maddison Leach at Google Play.

Pope Leo XIV, history's first American pope, has vowed to work for unity so that the Catholic Church becomes a sign of peace in the world, offering a message of love and communion during an inaugural Mass in St Peter's Square before tens of thousands of people, presidents, patriarchs and princes.

Leo officially opened his pontificate by taking his first popemobile tour through the piazza, a rite of passage that has become synonymous with the papacy's global reach and mediatic draw. The 69-year-old Augustinian missionary smiled and waved from the back of the truck, but didn't appear to stop to kiss babies and the crowd.

During the Mass, Leo appeared to choke up when the two potent symbols of the papacy were placed on him — the pallium woolen stole over his shoulders and the fisherman's ring on his finger — as if the weight of responsibility of leading the 1.4-billion strong church had just sunk in.

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He turned his hand to look at the ring and seal and then clasped his hands in front of him in prayer.

Security was tight as civil protection crews in neon uniforms funneled pilgrims into quadrants in the piazza and up and down the boulevard that leads to it for the ceremony blending ancient ritual, evocative symbols and a dose of modern-day celebrity.

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese attended. US Vice President JD Vance, one of the last foreign officials to see Pope Francis before he died, led the US delegation honouring the Chicago-born Leo after paying his respects at the Argentine pope's tomb upon arriving in Rome late on Saturday.

The theme of Leo's papacy

In his homily, Leo said he wanted to be a servant to the faithful through the two dimensions of the papacy, love and unity, so that the church could be a force for peace in the world.

"I would like that our first great desire be for a united church, a sign of unity and communion, which becomes a leaven for a reconciled world," he said. "In this our time, we still see too much discord, too many wounds caused by hatred, violence, prejudice, the fear of difference, and an economic paradigm that exploits the Earth's resources and marginalises the poorest."

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His call for unity was significant, given the polarisation in the Catholic Church in the United States and beyond.

Francis' radical 12-year pontificate, which emphasised care for the poor and marginalised and disdain for the capitalist economic system, often alienated conservatives and traditionalists. Leo's May 8 election, after a remarkably quick 24-hour conclave, has appeared at the outset to have pleased conservative Catholics who seem to appreciate his more disciplined, traditional style and Augustinian background, emphasising core truths of Catholic doctrine.

Tight security and protocol

Strict diplomatic protocol dictated the seating arrangements at his inaugural Mass, with both the United States and Peru getting front-row seats thanks to Leo's dual citizenship. Vance, a Catholic convert who tangled with Francis over the Trump administration's mass migrant deportation plans, is being joined by US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who arrived in Rome ahead of time to try to advance Russia-Ukraine peace talks.

Peruvian President Dina Boluarte is one of around a dozen heads of state attending, as well as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Russia is being represented by the culture minister, Olga Liubimova.

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Diplomatic protocol also dictated the dress code: While most wore black, the handful of Catholic queens and princesses — Charlene of Monaco and Letizia of Spain among others — wore white in a special privilege allowed them. Three dozen of the world's other Christian churches sent their own delegations, the Jewish community had a 13-member delegation, half of them rabbis. Other representatives headed Buddhist, Muslim, Zoroastrian, Hindu, Sikh and Jain delegations.

Americans are rejoicing

US seminarian Ethan Menning, 21, from Omaha, Nebraska, wrapped himself in an American flag, purchased at a truck stop in Iowa, to celebrate.

"Rome always felt like home for a Catholic, but now coming here and seeing one of our own on the throne of Peter … it almost makes Jesus himself more accessible," he said.

Kalen Hill, a pilgrim from the US, got to St. Peter's soon after the gates opened at dawn Sunday morning and said he never expected an American would lead the 1.4-billion strong church.

"I would say all the Americans are emotional about it," he said. "It is really powerful for American Catholics who sometimes feel separated from the world church to be brought in and included in this community through Pope Leo."

Signs of Leo's priorities

The two symbols of the papacy handed to Leo were the pallium, and the fisherman's ring. The pallium, draped across his shoulders, symbolises the pastor carrying his flock as the pope carries the faithful. The ring, which becomes Leo's official seal, harks back to Jesus' call to the apostle Peter to cast his fishing nets.

The other symbolically important moment of the Mass was the representational rite of obedience to Leo: Whereas in the past all cardinals would vow obedience to the new pope, more recent papal installations involve representatives of cardinals, bishops, priests, deacons, nuns, married couples and young people participating in the rite.

In the days since his historic election, Leo has already sketched out some of his key priorities as pope. In his first foreign policy address, he said the Holy See's three pillars of diplomacy were peace, justice and truth. In his first major economics address, he emphasised the Catholic Church's social doctrine and the search for truth.

After the homily and at the end of the Mass, Leo will offer a final blessing and then go into the basilica to greet the heads of the more than 150 official delegations attending.

Security was tight, as it was for Francis' funeral on April 26, which drew an estimated 250,000 people. The piazza and main boulevard leading to it, and two nearby piazzas were set up with giant television screens, and dozens of portable toilets have been erected in a nearby park.

Gregory and Susan Hudak, who lived for 40 years in the Chicago area, found themselves in Rome after booking a trip in February, with just a faint hope of perhaps glimpsing the pope.

Seeing the popemobile pass by in front of them, with the Chicago-born Leo on board, was even better than watching Michael Jordan play, said Gary Hudak, a former altar boy wearing a Chicago Bears hat.

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"Originally, the only hope I had coming here was to see the inside of the Sistine Chapel," he said.

"I was glad the conclave was over, because I could get to see the inside of the Sistine Chapel. Seeing the pope was not scheduled, it was a long shot hope. And this was a treasure, simple as that."

Dementia is a growing problem in Australia's ageing society and identifying people with it can be difficult.

The latest research shows how artificial intelligence could make a difference.

About 50 million people worldwide live with some form of dementia, and that's expected to triple by 2050, according to the World Alzheimer Report.

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But even that could be an underestimate because identifying people with the illness can be challenging.

Now, an Australian-US team of researchers has developed an artificial intelligence tool that detects dementia by analysing medical records for hundreds of clues including memory, difficulty performing daily activities, anxiety and unexplained agitation.

It makes it easier to diagnose potential sufferers.

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"If we find that there are clues to the presence of dementia in a person, and with their permission, we would be able to do a fuller clinical evaluation and confirm that and potentially provide them better care," Professor Velandai Srikanth said.

Researchers from the National Centre for Healthy Ageing – a partnership between Melbourne's Monash University and Peninsula Health – studied more than 1000 people aged 60 and above with dementia.

Using traditional data gathering and AI, researchers found their algorithms were highly accurate in determining whether or not a person had the illness.

They believe that, if adopted widely, this AI approach could transform how dementia is identified and managed.

They were returning from an overnight hike to Kapakapanui Hut when the weather changed.

A Melbourne man has told of his terror as armed thugs threatened to shoot him after smashing their way into his home.

The shocking home invasion was captured on security cameras.

Armed with a wooden pole, three masked thugs smashed their way into an Epping home.

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They climbed through the window, and stalked home owner Chris Middlemiss for a few minutes before he found them after hearing glass shatter.

Middlemiss called it a brazen attack.

"They did not hesitate," he said.

"I confronted them thinking that they were just young blokes and I would be able to handle the situation on my own. I was severely wrong."

One pulled out a gun and aimed it at Middlemiss.

Repeated shouts of "shoot him" can be heard on footage.

"I was unaware of [it] at the time, I didn't see them brandish the firearm or threaten me with it and I retreated to my yard," he said.

After Middlemiss ran out of the house the thieves made off with an e-bike

It was found dumped just a few doors away.

A police investigation is under way, but Middlemiss believes it was a targeted attack and is fearful the thugs will return.

Anyone with information can contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.

Heavy rain is expected to cause "significant" flooding in parts of NSW this week.

The Bureau of Meteorology has warned of heavy rain and damaging winds for the Hunter and Mid North Coast from tomorrow, with Sydney also in line for more wet weather.

The NSW State Emergency Service (SES) said it was preparing to deal with the impact of up to 180 millimetres in parts north of Newcastle.

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There are also warnings of strong winds and hazardous surf in the area, which includes the Hunter region.

The Bureau of Meteorology forecast 24-hour rainfall totals of 50 to 100 millimetres, with possible isolated rainfalls over 180 millimetres in 24 hours.

Strong winds averaging 50 to 60km/h, with gusts up to 90km/h are possible.

Assistant Commissioner Sean Kearns ESM said rivers and creeks are already rising.

"Flood warnings are in place for flooding on catchments across the Mid North Coast and Hunter. The NSW SES has mobilised flood rescue teams and preparing communities for the forecast severe weather," he said.

"If you do come across a flooded road, stop turn around and find an alternative route."

Flooding is likely on the Hunter, Williams, Patterson, Myall, Manning, Nambucca, Gloucester, Bellingen and Orara Rivers, the SES said.

Wind gusts of 70 to 80km/h are likely on the coast on Monday and Tuesday, and hazardous surf conditions with five metre waves from Sydney to Port Macquarie are expected.

As the wild weather started to hit on Saturday night, the NSW SES responded to 137 calls for help.

Most were in Lake Macquarie and Port Stephens but others came from as far south as Waverley and Woollahra in Sydney's east.

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Wet week forecast

After a mostly wet week, the rain is set to continue in NSW.

Rainfall totals of 50 to 100 millimetres are expected.

Sydney can expect more rain to start the week, which will ease off into showers by Wednesday.

Temperatures will peak at a cool 20 degrees.

Melbourne will stay sunny until Wednesday when showers are expected.

Brisbane will also get a wet start to the week, while Adelaide will be mostly sunny.

Hobart is also in line for some sun, which will peek through the clouds as the week goes on.

Perth will be a sunny 25 degrees.