Residents are returning to their homes northwest of Sydney after evacuation orders were lifted as floodwaters recede across NSW.

About 800 people were under an evacuation order in the Sydney region where floods damaged more than 60 homes and left 17 uninhabitable, with those number expected to rise on Monday.

Premier Chris Minns thanked emergency services for performing hundreds of flood rescues since downpours began on Friday.

“It could have been a lot worse,” he told ABC News Breakfast on Monday.

Minns said there were “no easy answers” for those living in flood-prone regions but reiterated the government’s $200 million commitment for evacuation routes and emergency levees.

Residents in parts of Windsor, Richmond, Sackville and Pitt Town are able to return home after the NSW State Emergency Service declared the regions are at a reduced threat.

Evacuation orders for suburbs along the Hawkesbury River were issued on Sunday morning after the river reached its peak of 10.52 metres at 9pm on Saturday.

NSW SES spokesperson Andrew Edmunds said the agency would be prioritising welfare checks and assisting with damage assessments throughout the day.

Residents have been warned the impacts of the weekend’s record-breaking rain could still present danger in the region, with damage to roads and train lines.

Jemima McDonald of Thirroul in Wollongong said she and her partner woke at 5am to neighbours knocking on their door.

“They had to wade up through the backyard … it was a metre and a half high up and they had to get up here and start smashing on our windows to get us to evacuate,” she told ABC Breakfast.

“We were out the door in a couple of minutes with just our son … When we came back about an hour and a bit later the house was filled with 20cm of water.”

McDonald said the community had rallied around to help with the clean up.

“From 6.30am we had people walking up the driveway with rakes and mops, and slowly we got all the mud out … it took all day.

“There was families coming around with chicken sandwiches, people coming around with cases of beer and water and big pots of soup.”

Interruption on roads and rail continues with parts of the South Coast train line remaining closed due to flood damage.

Road closures in the Blue Mountains-Megalong Valley have isolated hundreds of residents with the Bells Line of Rd and Megalong Rd shut.

The Bureau of Meteorology on Sunday said the worst of the weather has passed, with no thunderstorms forecast for Monday.

The SES responded to more than 4900 incidents over the weekend, with more than 5000 volunteers deployed across the state.