Third day of torrential rains in Australia, rivers in flood and residents trapped
Roads submerged in water northwest of Sydney, Monday, July 4, 2022. AP - Bianca De Marchi
Text by: RFI Follow
2 mins
In Australia, new floods hit the city of Sydney and its surroundings.
Tens of thousands of residents have had to evacuate since this weekend.
This is the third time since the beginning of the year that the city has been affected by floods.
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The city of Sydney has once again woken up with its feet in the water, says
RFI correspondent in Sydney
,
Léo Roussel,
on Monday 4 July.
Since this weekend, torrential rains have been falling on Australia's most populous city, causing major flooding.
"
The ground is saturated, the rivers are flowing fast, the dams are overflowing
," said a state emergency services official.
In the suburb of Camden, south-west of Sydney, muddy brown waters have turned a large swath of land into a lake.
Torrential rains in New South Wales state could persist for at least another 24 hours, experts say.
Residents called to evacuate
Since Saturday July 2, more than 30,000 residents of the outskirts have been ordered to leave their homes.
Flood alerts and evacuation orders continued to fall on Monday morning.
Emergency services have responded 85 times in the past 24 hours.
Many people have indeed been trapped in their cars trying to cross flooded roads or have been stranded in their homes surrounded by rising waters.
The storm is also raging off the coast of Sydney, where a 150-meter-long freighter is in trouble on Monday with 21 crew members on board.
A project to hoist people on board had to be postponed for safety reasons, according to the police.
Australia hit by climate change
The rain should continue to fall until Friday in Sydney, but with less intensity as a lull is expected in the next few hours.
According to Dominic Perrottet, Premier of New South Wales, Australia must prepare for more regular flooding: "
There is no doubt that these events are becoming more frequent
," he said.
"
Governments need to adapt and ensure we respond to the changing environment in which we find ourselves
."
It is already the third time that the state of New South Wales has been plagued by such intense rains since the beginning of 2022. In March, 20 people were killed in a similar event. , affecting the entire east coast of the country.
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To read also
:
Australia: thousands of people called to evacuate in Sydney in the face of the threat of floods
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