More than 30,000 residents in and around Sydney were told to evacuate or prepare to leave their homes on Monday as Australia’s biggest city faced its fourth, and possibly worst, round of flooding in less than a year and a half. Days of torrential rain caused dams to overflow and waterways to burst their banks, bringing a fresh flood emergency to parts of the city of 5 million. “The latest information we have is that there is a very good chance the flooding will be worse than any of the other three floods these areas have had in the last 18 months,” Emergency Management Minister Murray Watt said. The current flooding may affect areas that were spared during previous floods in March last year, March this year and April, Watt added. New South Wales state Premier Dominic Perrottet said 32,000 people were affected by evacuation orders and warnings. “You would probably expect to see that number increase during the week,” Perrottet said. Emergency services carried out several flood rescues on Sunday and into the early hours of Monday and were receiving hundreds more calls for help. Australian Bureau of Meteorology director Jane Golding said some areas between Newcastle, north of Sydney, and Wollongong, south of Sydney, had received more than a meter of rain in the previous 24 hours. Some have received more than 1.5 meters. These totals are close to the average annual rainfall for coastal New South Wales. “The system that created this weather is showing signs of moving away tomorrow, but throughout today, more rain is expected,” Golding said. Rain was forecast all along the New South Wales coast, including Sydney, throughout the week, he said. The Bureau of Meteorology says up to 12cm of rain could fall in Sydney on Monday. The risk of flooding was highest along the Hawkesbury River, northwest of Sydney, and the Nepean River, west of Sydney. The bureau on Monday evening reported major flooding in the Napier communities of Menangle and Wallacia on Sydney’s south-west fringes. Major flooding also occurred in the Hawkesbury in North Richmond on Sydney’s north-west edge. The Hawkesbury communities of Windsor and Lower Portland were expected to flood on Monday afternoon and Wisemans Ferry on Tuesday, the bureau said in a statement. State Emergency Services Commissioner Karlen York said high winds toppled trees, damaged roofs and closed roads. He advises against traveling for no reason. Off the coast of New South Wales, a cargo ship with 21 crew members lost power after leaving port in Wollongong on Monday morning. It was moored close to shore and tugs were preparing to tow it to safer, open water. The ship has engineers who can repair the engine, port official John Finch told reporters. “Unfortunately, we happen to be in some horrible conditions right now,” he said, describing 8-meter swells and 30-knot (34 mph) winds. An earlier plan to ferry the ship’s crew to safety was abandoned due to bad weather. Repeated flooding has taken its toll on members of a riverside community southwest of Sydney, Camden Mayor Theresa Fedeli said where homes and businesses were inundated by the Nepean River on Sunday night. “It’s just devastating. They keep saying ‘catastrophic, not again,’” Fedelli said. “I just keep saying … ‘We’ve got to be strong, we’ll get through this.’ But you know deep down that it really hits home hard for a lot of people,” he added. Perrottet said the government and communities had to adapt to major floods becoming more frequent across Australia’s most populous state. “To look at exactly what we’re seeing in Sydney, there’s no doubt these events are becoming more common. And governments need to adapt and make sure we respond to the changing environment we’re in,” Perrottet said.
