More residents in Australia’s largest city have been told to evacuate or prepare to evacuate their homes amid another day of massive flooding triggered by heavy rains.
Emergency authorities Tuesday issued evacuation orders and warnings Tuesday for 50,000 residents in Sydney, the capital of New South Wales state, up from Monday’s figure of 32,000 residents. A strong storm cell has produced several days of torrential rain that has caused dams and rivers to overflow, swamping roads and inundating hundreds of homes in and around Sydney. Emergency workers have conducted several rescues overnight of people trapped in their homes or cars stuck in flooded roads.
New South Wales state Premier Dominic Perrottet urged residents Tuesday not to be complacent. “This event is far from over,” he told reporters.
A building is inundated with water at Richmond on the outskirts of Sydney, Australia, on July 5, 2022. Hundreds of homes have been inundated in and around Australia’s largest city in a flood emergency that was threatening 50,000 people, officials said.
New South Wales state has declared a natural disaster for 23 areas across the state, which authorizes financial assistance for affected residents.
The storm has complicated efforts to tow a cargo ship that has been drifting off the coast of Sydney since losing power on Monday. An attempt to tow the ship and its 21 crew members to shore failed when heavy winds and huge waves caused a towline to snap.
Sydney is facing its fourth major flooding event since March 2021, causing billions of dollars in damages.
People paddle through a flooded street at Windsor on the outskirts of Sydney, Australia, on July 5, 2022.
Some information for this report came from The Associated Press, Reuters, Agence France-Presse