storm
Historic floods in Australia
A man carries a woman through floodwaters on a flooded road in Lismore, Australia. Photo: Jason O’äôbrien/AAP/dpa
© dpa-infocom GmbH
It’s actually still summer in Australia. But the east of the country is hit by a deluge. Hundreds of thousands of people are affected.
The massive flooding in eastern Australia continues to have a firm grip on large parts of the region. The emergency services worked tirelessly on Tuesday to rescue people in need from the roofs of their houses with helicopters and boats.
300,000 people in the state of New South Wales should get ready to be brought to safety at short notice if necessary, said Steph Cooke, the regional secretary for emergency services. She asked those affected: “Please pack a bag and your mobile phone and charger”.
The trigger for the extreme weather is a low-pressure area that is only moving slowly. This is now moving from north to south. The metropolis of Sydney and the south coast of New South Wales would have to be prepared for “heavy to torrential rain”, meteorologists warned. Floods had recently occurred in Sydney, the largest city Down Under – according to experts, it was the wettest summer in the metropolis in 30 years.
Never experienced such floods
“The Weather Service and other authorities are reporting more storms and more flooding expected throughout the week,” Prime Minister Scott Morrison said. The town of Lismore was hit the hardest. “They were always used to floods there, but they have never experienced anything like this in their lives.”
Media spoke of a “historic disaster” in the entire state. Whole towns were “swallowed” by the water masses. In many houses the brown water rose up to the ceiling.
In the neighboring state of Queensland, two men were missing in the floods. Eight people had already died in the region in the past few days. The metropolis of Brisbane and the cities of Gympie and Maryborough as well as areas along the Sunshine Coast were also affected by flooding. In some areas it had rained as much in a few days as it normally does in a whole year.