Key points
- Thousands of people have been isolated amid record-breaking flooding
- Heavy rainfall on Wednesday continued for a fourth consecutive day
- NSW State Emergency Service says it responded to 887 calls for assistance
ISLAMABAD: Fast-moving floodwaters rose Wednesday in eastern Australia, inundating homes and leaving residents stranded on their roofs overnight, as authorities warned more rain was expected in coming days.
Thousands of people have been isolated amid record-breaking flooding in the east coast Australian state of New South Wales (NSW).
Heavy rainfall on Wednesday continued for a fourth consecutive day in regions over 100 km north of Sydney, exacerbating widespread flash flooding.
The NSW State Emergency Service (SES) said that it responded to 887 calls for assistance, including 118 flood rescues, in the 24 hours to Wednesday morning.
Storms have already dumped more than four months’ of rain in just two days in parts of New South Wales, engulfing homes, businesses and roads in muddy waters, authorities said.
Ground saturated, rivers swollen
“We have a situation where the rain has been falling quite heavily and hard and it has not been moving away. Part of that is because the ground is saturated and the rivers are swollen,” the state’s emergency minister Jihad Dib told reporters.
Taree, about 300 kilometres (180 miles) north of Sydney, is a key area of concern for emergency services after 415 millimetres (16.34 inches) of rain lashed the town since Monday — more than four times the mean monthly rainfall for May, according to AFP.
Authorities said that water levels of a river in Taree surged past a previous record in 1929, reaching 6.3 metres (20.6 feet) on Wednesday.
The rising floodwaters left locals stuck on roofs overnight, with rescuers unable to reach them due to the bad weather.
Desperate for assistance
Taree resident Holly Pillotto, who was among those stranded on an upper level of her home, said she was desperate for assistance as floodwaters continued to rise.
“Our neighbours on the back verandah here are also stranded,” she told Australia’s Channel Nine. “It’s a really dangerous spot to be.”
Dib said that emergency services were “throwing everything we have into” reaching those affected.
State Emergency Service Chief Superintendent Dallas Byrnes said the situation was “incredibly dynamic and escalating”, with more than 150 flood rescues conducted overnight.
“We’ve got a lot of people getting rescued from rooftops and from upper levels of houses,” Byrnes told the national broadcaster ABC.
However, he warned that “conditions are quite treacherous and it may be that those aviation assets are unable to fly throughout the day”.
The agency said that about 16,000 people, or 7,400 dwellings, would remain isolated until at least Thursday.
