Floods in Australia: 17,000 people have to be evacuated from the coastal region around Sydney. There is a mouse plague inland.
Sydney – Just over a year ago, the country was battling heavy bushfires. Shortly afterwards, the pandemic hit the coasts of Australia. Last weekend, Sydney and large parts of the east coast were hit by a real flood. The weather and the masses of water are troubling Australia: Heavy rain caused the water reservoir of the metropolis, which normally looks with concern at the low water levels, to overflow.
In the west of Sydney, the authorities even reported a small tornado, and there is also flooding. Many rivers in eastern Australia overflowed. Around 17,000 people had to be evacuated from the water-flooded coastal regions over the weekend due to the exceptional weather conditions. There had already been a devastating flood in Australia in 2019.
Land divided: Like here at Old Pitt, many rivers have overflowed their banks.
© Mark Baker / dpa
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After floods in Australia and tornado near Sydney: bodyboarders missing, including hikers
The Australian rescue services recorded thousands of missions because of the sudden flood and had to bring hundreds of people to safety from the floods. A bodyboarder has been missing since Saturday afternoon. In the Blue Mountains National Park west of Sydney, two stranded bushwalkers had to be rescued after the masses of water trapped them.
The case of a couple north of Sydney is tragic in a romantic sense: The Australians Sarah Soars and Joshua Edge actually wanted to get married on Saturday, but instead of spending the happiest day of their lives, they had to watch the weather take control of the day and the flood of water destroyed their future together: their house near Sydney was completely inundated by the flood – the water eventually tore it from its anchorage and drove it down the Manning River.
Weather disaster in Australia: Masses of water tore their house with them at a couple’s wedding
Sarah Soars told the local medium “News Limited” about the current weather events in Australia that ruined her wedding, but she still did not really understand the scope of what had happened. That will probably only happen when “I see my partner again and we think about how we should go on”. The flood north of Sydney is currently separating the two of them – the young bride is stuck in the town of Taree, her future husband is in Tinonee, 15 kilometers away. The Australian Manning River is so flooded that it cannot currently be crossed due to the flooding.
The fate of the couple from near Sydney has reminded many in Australia of the extent of the natural and weather disaster. An online fundraising site set up by Joshua’s brother Lyle Edge had already raised around 80,000 Australian dollars, or the equivalent of almost 52,000 euros, on Sunday to help the couple stricken by the water.
Sunken: Walkers in a park near Sydney.
© Saeed Khan / afp
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Weather contrast in the center of Australia: Biggest mouse plague for decades due to drought
While the coastal inhabitants in the east are fleeing the masses of water, the rural population in large parts of the interior is currently battling one of the worst mouse plagues of the past hundred years. A consequence of the drought in the region.
Videos on social media show the extent of the flood. Some show farms being attacked by hundreds or even thousands of mice, causing great damage. Norman Moeris, a farmer from Gilgandra, a small town around six hours’ drive northwest of Sydney, reported that he had already found up to 30,000 mice in some sacks of grain. The stench was so intense that you could “smell it from hundreds of meters away,” he said in an interview with Zoom.
Everything nibbled on: residents want heavy rain against the mouse plague in central Australia
“There is probably hardly a good bale of hay left here,” he said. “We had three years of drought and now we’ve harvested good hay, stored it in the hay barn and all the hay is totally ruined.” No other animal wants to eat it anymore, it stinks so badly after the mice attacked it. The local supermarkets have already had to throw away thousands of dollars after the mice nibbled on many packages. “You have to put all things away and put them in plastic bags,” he said. “They even ate the filters on the cigarettes under the counters.”
Even if there have been mouse plagues in earlier years, this is a plague that is particularly difficult to deal with. “I’m 64 years old and that’s the worst I’ve ever been,” said the farmer. Local media already spoke of a plague of “biblical proportions”. While the inhabitants of the coast flee from the heavy rain, Moeris wants nothing more than a lot of water. Because the masses of water would put a natural end to the mouse plague, he explained. “We need a lot of rain and cold weather to get things back.” There is hope for this: According to the weather forecast, the heavy rain will also reach the Moeris Farm region from Monday. (Barbara Barkhausen)
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