Heavy rain on Monday made the situation in southwestern parts of Australia worse. Thousands of residents have been evacuated and hundreds of schools closed.
The heavy rains have led to flooding in Port Macquarie, New South Wales in Australia. Foto: Alex McNaught, Reuters
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22. mars 2021 06:47
Last updated just now
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For several days the rain has led to flooding in large parts of Australia’s most populous state, New South Wales. Central and northern parts of the state are particularly hard hit, and state minister Gladys Berejiklian says the region has been hit by a centennial flood.
On Monday, eight million residents were asked to avoid unnecessary travel and to work from home if possible. Some areas have received 25 millimeters of rainfall in the last 24 hours.
– I do not know of any time in the state’s history where we have had such extreme weather conditions so close to each other in the middle of a pandemic, Berejiklian says.
The flood comes one year after the same area was hit by huge forest fires, which came after a long period of drought.
18,000 evacuated
Berejiklian states that about 18,000 people have been evacuated from their homes. A total of 15,000 of them are from the central and northern part of the state. Here, some areas around Port Macquarie have received almost 900 millimeters of rain in the last six days.
– I’ve never seen rain like this. I have worked on a number of floods, and this is the largest of them all, says Shane Cribb, head of the rescue service SES in New South Wales to the channel ABC.
West of the city of Sydney, rivers have reached a level of flooding that has not been seen since 1961. This is because the Warragamba dam, which provides most of Sydney’s drinking water, is overflowing and overflowing. 3,000 have been evacuated from this area.
A total of 54,000 inhabitants will probably be affected in the next few days, because the extreme rainfall is expected to continue for another two days.
—-Many roads are closed due to the floods in the Australian state of New South Wales. Here from Old Pitt Town northwest of Sydney. Photo: Mark Baker / AP / NTB
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The Prime Minister promises clean-up aid
Researchers have warned that Australia can expect more frequent and extreme weather events as a result of climate change.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison, who heads a Conservative government criticized for not taking the climate challenge seriously, says Australia has been “tested once again” by “terrible events”.
He told parliament that Australian defense personnel were being called in to help with the clean-up work after the flood.
The emergency services have received at least 8,800 calls and saved several hundred since the extreme weather started.
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