Thousands of people across three states in Australia were asked to evacuate their homes on Friday after two days of unrelenting rain triggered flash floods in the south east of the country.
The flooding has been worst in the state of Victoria so far, with southern parts of New South Wales and northern parts of the island state of Tasmania also witnessing incessant rain. Some regions have taken more than a month’s worth of rain since Wednesday, according to officials.
“[This] has led to widespread, major flooding … with some rivers experiencing record flooding and this is only going to continue to move downstream and get worse,” Dean Narramore of Australia’s Bureau of Meteorology told ABC television.
Images on social media showed people wading through knee-deep water with their pets while others were being rescued on boats. Meanwhile, the ground floor of a pub on the banks of Melbourne’s Maribyrnong river was almost completely underwater on Friday morning.
The state of Victoria was worst hit at first, including its capital Melbourne as the Maribyrnong River burst its banks
This is not the first major flooding crisis in Australia this year. Severe storms along the country’s east coast led to flooding in March this year, which devastated parts of Queensland and New South Wales and claimed over 20 lives. In July, tens of thousands of residents in Sydney were asked to evacuate due to floods.
Weather experts attribute these to a multi-year La Nina — a weather phenomenon which brings more rain.
‘It’s far from over’
Several rivers in Victoria, including the Maribyrnong in Melbourne’s west and the Goulburn further north, reached major floods levels with rainwater bursting past the banks. Near-record flood levels were expected later on Friday evening in the towns of Shepparton and Murchison, north of Melbourne. The Goldburn river — about 100 kilometers (62 miles) north of Melbourne — has already crossed the record from may 1974.
“It’s far from over, we’ll see waters rise,” Victoria Premier Daniel Andrews told the Australia Broadcasting Corporation (ABC). “We’ll see more and more waters continuing to rise, more and more houses being inundated, more and more communities being closed off.”
Authorities fear that the flooding will get worse and isolate more residential areas
Evacuation underway
In Victoria, the state’s COVID-19 quarantine facility will likely be reopened to shelter flood-impacted residents. The coronavirus center was closed last week after Australia scrapped isolation rules.
In Tasmania, the crisis intensified overnight as heavy rains led to the closure of over 120 roads. Mass evacuation orders have been issued there. “Lives are at risk from floodwaters,” Tasmania’s state emergency service said in a statement.
Meanwhile hundreds of residents in southern New South Wales — Australia’s most populous state — spent the night in evacuation centers. The New South Wales emergency service said flood levels in Forbes would peak on Friday as water moved downstream.
mk/msh (Reuters, AFP)
Article source: https://www.dw.com/en/australia-flash-floods-force-evacuations-in-southeast/a-63436593?maca=en-rss-en-all-1573-rdf