Sydney, Europe Brief News – Thousands of people left their homes in Australia’s most populous state of New South Wales after receiving more than flood warnings.
Swollen rivers burst banks and neared record flood levels, threatening thousands of nearby residents.
New South Wales’ Emergency Services Minister Steph Cooke said the area was experiencing “record-breaking floods” while Emergency Service Strategic Leader Ashley Sullivan told reporters water levels were “rising quicker than what we have seen before.”
“This event is far from over,” New South Wales Premier Dominic Perrottet told reporters. “Wherever you are, please be careful when you’re driving on our roads. There are still substantial risks for flash flooding.”
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, who returned to Australia Tuesday after a week-long trip to Europe, said he would tour the affected regions on Wednesday along with Perrottet.
The federal government has declared the floods a natural disaster, helping flood-hit residents receive emergency funding support.
The latest wild storm cell – which brought a year’s worth of rain in three days to some areas – is likely to ease in Sydney from Tuesday as the coastal trough moves north, the Bureau of Meteorology (BoM) said.
But the risk of flooding could remain through the week with most river catchments already near capacity even before the latest deluge. Some regions have received 800mm (31.5 inches) of rain since Saturday, eclipsing Australia’s annual average rainfall of around 500mm (20 inches).
About 90mm (3.5 inches) of rain could fall over six hours in the state’s mid-north coast from Tuesday, reaching up to 125mm (5 inches) in some places, BoM said.
Winds up to 90 km per hour (56 miles per hour) are also forecast in several flood-hit places. This has risen the risk of falling trees and power lines.
