This is a life-threatening emergency situation, warned the Sydney administration
More than 30,000 residents of Sydney and its surrounds have been told to evacuate or prepare to abandon their homes on Monday as Australia’s largest city braces for the worst rain and flooding in 18 months.
Overflowing dams caused by heavy rains and rivers breaking the banks led to a flood emergency in various parts of the city of 5 million people. Sydney administration on Sunday issued flash floods and land sliding warnings along the east coast from Newcastle to Batemans Bay in New South Wales state, as rain was expected to intensify in the night.
“The latest information we have is that there’s a very good chance that the flooding will be worse than any of the other three floods that those areas had in the last 18 months,” Australia’s Emergency Management Minister Murray Watt said.
“Do not assume you will be safe tonight”
The current flooding could affect the areas that remained intact during heavy flooding in March 2021 and March and April earlier this year, Watt added.
“If you were safe in 2021, do not assume you will be safe tonight. This is a rapidly evolving situation and we could very well see areas impacted that have never experienced flooding before,” warned New South Wales Minister for Emergency Services Steph Cooke in a televised media briefing on Sunday evening. “This is a life-threatening emergency situation,” Cooke added.
This could get “significantly worse”
The heavy rains caused Sydney’s main dam to spill over early on Sunday morning, and the authorities warned that this could worsen over the night.
“This could get significantly worse over the night,” State Emergency Service Commissioner Carlene York said.
Sydney has already seen almost half the volume of rainfall the city experiences annually. Most areas of the city have witnessed over 200mm (8 inches) of rain so far, with some hit by as much as 350mm (13.8 inches), according to the Bureau of Meteorology. The Met department warned that flood risks are higher along the Nepean and Hawkesbury Rivers.