Volunteers from the State Emergency Service and the Rural Fire Brigade are seen evacuating residents of the Woronora River area as flood waters rise on July 4, 2022 in Sydney, Australia.
Sean Foster | Getty Images News | Getty Images
Torrential rains continued to hit Australia’s east coast on Tuesday, intensifying the flood crisis in Sydney as thousands more residents were ordered to leave their homes after rivers quickly surpassed snow levels. danger.
Some 50,000 residents in New South Wales, mostly in the western suburbs of Sydney, have been told to evacuate or warned they could receive evacuation orders, more than 30,000 on Monday, the authorities.
“This event is far from over,” New South Wales Prime Minister Dominic Perrottet told reporters. “Wherever you are, be careful when driving on our roads. There are still substantial risks of sudden flooding.”
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, who returned to Australia on Tuesday after a week-long trip to Europe, said on Wednesday he would tour the affected regions along with Perrottet.
The federal government has declared the floods a natural disaster, helping residents affected by the floods receive emergency funding.
The last wild storm cell, which brought a year of rain in three days to some areas, is likely to be reduced to Sydney from Tuesday as the coastal trough moves north, he said. the Bureau of Meteorology (BoM).
But the risk of flooding could remain throughout the week with most river basins close to their capacity even before the last flood. Some regions have received 800 mm (31.5 inches) of rain since Saturday, eclipsing Australia’s average annual rainfall of about 500 mm (20 inches).
About 90 mm (3.5 inches) of rain could fall for six hours on the state’s north central coast as of Tuesday, reaching up to 125 mm (5 inches) in some places, BoM said.
Winds of up to 90 km per hour (56 miles per hour) are also forecast at various flood-affected locations, increasing the risk of falling trees and power lines.
Fighting rough seas, emergency crews continued their rescue operations on Tuesday to tow a bulk carrier that lost energy off the coast of Sydney after tow lines were broken in bad weather, officials said .
Heavy flooding is occurring in Windsor, west of Sydney, its third and worst flood this year, according to the weather office.
Images on social media showed submerged roads and bridges, while emergency crews rescued stranded people from partially submerged vehicles who were trapped in the rising waters.
Nigel Myron, a Windsor resident, said he has kept an inflatable boat ready if it were to evacuate, although he wants to return to his seat once the waters become entangled.
“At the end of the day, what can you do? It’s what it is and we dust ourselves off the ashes and rebuild after the floods have come and gone,” Myron told ABC television.
“Substantial economic impact”
Federal Treasurer Jim Chalmers warned that the economic impact of the floods “will be substantial.”
Floods are likely to have flooded several food-producing regions and this would affect supplies and raise prices, with family budgets already sinking in the face of rising vegetable and fruit prices, Chalmers said. .
“It’s no use walking on tiptoe … this inflation problem we have in our economy will get worse before it gets better. It has many sources, but this (flood) will be one of them,” Chalmers told Sky News. .
The Reserve Bank of Australia noted that the floods “are also affecting some prices” as it raised its cash rate by 50 basis points on Tuesday and announced a tightening later to control rising inflation.
The Insurance Council of Australia, which declared the floods an “important event”, urged those affected to apply for claims, although the full extent of the damage was now unknown.