In the particularly badly affected city of Lismore in New South Wales, an elderly woman drowned in her flooded house – she is the first fatality in the state.
The emergency services continued to work tirelessly to rescue people in need from the roofs of their houses with helicopters and boats. 300,000 people in the state of New South Wales should get ready to be brought to safety at short notice if necessary, said Steph Cooke, the regional secretary for emergency services. She asked those affected: “Please pack a bag and your mobile phone and charger.”
The trigger for the extreme weather is a low-pressure area that is only moving slowly. This is now moving from north to south. Meteorologists warned that the metropolis of Sydney and the south coast of New South Wales would have to prepare for “heavy to torrential rain”. Floods had recently occurred in Sydney, the largest city Down Under – according to experts, it was the wettest summer in the metropolis in 30 years.
“The Weather Service and other authorities are reporting further storms and more flooding expected throughout the week,” Prime Minister Scott Morrison said. The destruction in the city of Lismore is particularly great. “They were always used to floods there, but they have never experienced anything like this in their lives.”
Media spoke of a “historic disaster” in the entire state. Whole towns were “swallowed” by the water masses. In many houses the brown water rose up to the ceiling.
In the neighboring state of Queensland, meanwhile, the clean-up work was in full swing. The metropolis of Brisbane and the cities of Gympie and Maryborough as well as areas along the Sunshine Coast were also affected by flooding. In some areas it had rained as much in a few days as it normally does in a whole year. At Gympie, the water reached the height of utility poles: photos showed a quad bike hanging high off a power line after the floods receded.
Source: Nachrichten
