SYDNEY — Hundreds of people have been rescued as severe flooding has hit the Sydney region for the fourth time in less than 18 months. Days of torrential rain have drenched some suburbs – sweeping cars off roads and sinking bridges – as authorities warned the dangerous weather would continue. “This event is far from over,” New South Wales Premier Dominic Perrottet warned on Tuesday. There were currently 102 evacuation orders statewide, including nearly a dozen new ones overnight, he said, adding that evacuation orders or warnings had affected about 50,000 people. Images show record-breaking flooding in Australia The Australian government declared the floods a natural disaster, enabling some victims to access recovery funds. On Monday, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said he was briefed on the situation after a secret trip to Ukraine. Australia’s east coast has experienced four major floods in less than 18 months as the La Niña weather pattern has brought cooler, wetter conditions. The Australian Bureau of Meteorology recently declared the end of the 2021-2022 La Niña, but warned it could re-form later in the year. The current rainfall is being caused by a low pressure system off the east coast, the bureau said. Sydney already had its wettest year on record, when 1½ months of rain fell on the city in just the first four days of July. A widely seen BBC graphic captured Sydney’s rainy situation: It showed Australia’s most populous city received significantly more rain from Friday to Monday than London – which is no stranger to rain – on average term in one year. A forecaster said the city received the equivalent of all the water in Sydney Harbor every day during the rainfall. “It’s hard to fathom that we’re seeing rainfall of this magnitude hit this part of Australia once again,” Weatherzone meteorologist Ben Domensino told local broadcaster Nine Network on Monday. A spokesman for the State Emergency Services, or SES, said at midday on Tuesday that the agency had carried out 152 flood rescues in the past 24 hours and almost 300 since flooding began in some areas on June 28. There are no known deaths. he said. (The death of a Sydney kayaker over the weekend was unrelated to flooding, according to police.) News footage showed water completely covering a bridge in the town of Windsor, northwest of Sydney. For some Sydney residents in historically flood-prone areas, the deluge was the third in four months. “Where do you start? Mentally, physically, financially, it destroys you,” Judy White told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. She said she was still cleaning up from the latest flood when waters flooded her home in the Sydney suburb of Londonderry again. Scientists say climate change is increasing the frequency and severity of natural disasters, raising questions about whether people should continue to live in areas where “once-in-a-century” floods are becoming more common. James Pittock, a climate expert at the Australian National University, told the ABC the government should offer to buy 5,000 or 6,000 of the most flood-prone homes in western Sydney. Perrottet said 19,000 homes were without power on Tuesday due to heavy rains, which are expected to continue this week. SES Commissioner Carlene York, who said the floods had “stretched” her agency’s resources, urged people not to drive unless absolutely necessary. “If you don’t need to travel on the roads, don’t do anything other than essential travel,” he said. “It’s dangerous. Waters rise very quickly, as we saw last night. It can put you in danger and require emergency services to come out and rescue you.” York also warned that even after the waters recede, roads could remain damaged. On Tuesday, the state’s regional transport minister said flooding had caused a 200-foot-deep, 130-foot-wide sinkhole to open next to a railway in the Blue Mountains, west of Sydney.
