As relentless rains lashed Sydney for the third time in a year and water submerged low lying suburbs, tens of thousands of Sydney residents were asked to evacuate on Monday.
An intense low-pressure system off Australia’s east coast is the reason for the heavy downpour. Forecast say there will be heavy rain throughout Monday across New South Wales. This comes after several places in the state were lashed with a month’s worth of rainfall.
Over 30,000 people in New South Wales state were informed to either evacuate or warned that they might soon receive evacuation orders.
According to Reuters, Frustration swelled in several suburbs in the west of Australia’s largest city after floods submerged homes, farms and bridges.
“It’s just devastating. We are in disbelief,” Camden Mayor Theresa Fedeli said.
“Most of them have just come out of the last flood, getting their homes back in place, their businesses back in place and unfortunately we are saying it is happening again.”
The area has experienced 200mm of rain with some places seeing 350 mm of rainfall since Saturday.
There have been warnings that some areas could near or exceed flood levels witnessed in March 2021. Meanwhile a cargo ship has lost power off the coast of Sydney and threatens to risk running ashore. A rescue operation has been launched to rescue 21 crew members of the cargo ship.
During a televised address New South Wales Premier Dominic Perrottet said that “it has been a very difficult time for many months to have this flood event off the back of others. It makes it more challenging.”
Paul O’Neill, a resident from flood-hit Wisemans Ferry, said he was taking food supplies by boat to his stranded family after rising waters cut off access.
“The road collapsed and hasn’t been fixed since the last floods, hasn’t been touched. So now they close our road access and then the ferry, the only way to get home now is by boat,” O’Neill told Reuters.
Australia has witnessed several severe weather events with climate change said to be the reason. Federal emergency management minister Murray Watt said climate change must be taken “seriously” due to the frequent occurrence of floods.
“The reality is we are living in a changing climate,” he told ABC television.
