Experiencing The Worst Flood In 60 Years, Thousands Of Sydney Residents Are Being Evacuated

Illustration of floods in Sydney 2011. (Wikimedia Commons / Brisbane City Council)

JAKARTA - Australian authorities plan to evacuate thousands of people west of Sydney, New South Wales on Monday 22 March, after the worst flooding in 60 years has hit the region.

Heavy rains that have fallen over the past three days have caused rivers in the State of New South Wales to overflow, causing massive damage and evacuations of residents in the submerged areas.

"We need to brace ourselves, this is going to be a very difficult week", New South Wales State Prime Minister Gladys Berejiklian told reporters.

The torrential rains, which have submerged much of New South Wales, stand in stark contrast to weather conditions in the same region last year when authorities were battling devastating drought and wildfires.

"I don't know of any time in the history of the state, where we experienced these extreme weather conditions consecutively in the middle of a pandemic", Berejiklian continued.

Local government data showed Sydney on Sunday recorded the wettest day of the year with rainfall of almost 111 mm (4.4 inches). While some areas of New South Wales' northern coast received nearly 900 mm of rain in the past six days, more than three times the March average, government data show.

Authorities said some 18.000 people had been evacuated from the state's low-lying areas. Most of the country's east coast will be hit by heavier rains from Monday due to a combination of tropical lowlands in northern Western Australia and a coastal trough off the coast of New South Wales, said Bureau of Meteorology (BoM) official Jane Golding.

"We expect this heavy rain to fall in an area that hasn't had much rain over the last few days. We expect the risk of flooding to develop in that area too", Golding said.

Several places in the western region of Sydney have experienced the worst flooding since 1961, authorities said. This weather is expected to continue until the day after tomorrow. A severe flood warning has also been issued for large parts of New South Wales as well as neighboring Queensland.