Melbourne, Australia—In Sydney, Australia’s largest city, tens of thousands of citizens have been ordered to leave their homes after flash flooding and excessive rain.
Roads have been closed, and 18 mandatory evacuations have been issued in western Sydney alone, with threats of additional orders to follow.
The state of New South Wales emergency services minister, Stephanie Cooke, deemed the circumstance to be life-threatening.
“The dams are too small to hold any more water. They are beginning to leak. Rivers are moving really quickly and are extremely dangerous. Depending on where the rain falls, there is also a possibility of flash flooding “Commissioner of the State Emergency Service Carlene York warned.
Twenty people lost their lives as a result of flash flooding in the region in March.
Flash floods, riverine flooding, and beach erosion are current threats that we must contend with, Ms. Cooke said at a press event.
Her warning came as the Bureau of Meteorology projected that the Nepean River might flood as a result of up to 350mm of rain falling in some areas..Sydney’s major dam had also begun to leak overnight, which gave the officials more cause for alarm.
Ms. Cooke said that the situation was “rapidly developing” and advised people to be “prepared to evacuate at short notice.”
She reported that in the previous 24 hours alone, emergency services had performed 83 flood rescues.
It sadly demonstrates that people aren’t always paying attention to the warnings we continue to issue about this flooding event, Ms. Cooke added.
“I respectfully request that individuals postpone any unnecessary travel at this time.”
Climate change and the La Nia weather phenomena, according to experts, have made the flooding issue worse. When powerful winds push the hot Pacific Ocean surface waters away from South America and towards Indonesia, a La Nia forms. Colder waters replace them by rising to the top.
29 individuals have been saved from flooding in the last day, including one who spent an hour clinging to a pole as rescuers attempted to get to them.
A La Nia in Australia makes rain, cyclones, and colder daytime temperatures more likely.
