Australia: the coast is facing a deluge lasting more than two weeks
Audio 01:19
Part of the city of Sydney is flooded on March 8, 2022, due to torrential rains falling on eastern Australia.
© AAP Image/Dean Lewins via REUTERS
Text by: RFI Follow
1 min
In Australia, torrential rains have been battering the east coast for 16 days in a row.
Several areas of Sydney have received evacuation orders, some rivers are in flood and a dam has even started to overflow.
This March is set to be one of the wettest on record in Australia.
We hope for a lull for the end of the week only.
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With our correspondent in Sydney,
Grégory Plesse
It's a real deluge facing the city of Sydney, where in some neighborhoods, totally flooded, people now travel by boat... In just six hours, 120 millimeters of rain fell on the seaside district of Manly where, in some streets, the water reaches the level of the roofs of the houses.
Across the state of New South Wales
, more than 60,000 people have been ordered to evacuate their homes.
20 deaths in a few days
The emergency services call on the population to avoid traveling by car as much as possible: “
Many roads in Sydney, under the effect of this precipitation which will continue until the night, are flooded.
I repeat, do not attempt to drive through a flooded road.
These flash floods surprise many motorists and can be very dangerous.
»
In fact, these floods have killed 20 people in recent days.
Most were found in or near their car.
Such is the case of a mother and son whose bodies were found today in a western suburb of Sydney.
Meteorological services predict a lull from tomorrow.
But they also call for vigilance.
The rivers, already waterlogged, could rise again over the next few days.
Bad weather lashing Hunter, Sydney, Illawarra, South Coast will continue for many hours.
@BOM_NSW warning weather system is still developing into an East Coast Low.
Heavy rains and very strong winds this afternoon and tonight, with risk of falling trees and power lines.
#nswrfs pic.twitter.com/5PVgiZtAam
— NSW RFS (@NSWRFS) March 8, 2022
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