“Every six hours to eight hours (we) try to take a hot shower and change again and try to have a coffee break or a short nap in between,” said Osmotherly, who says she’s barely slept for three days.
When Osmotherly opened the cafe 15 years ago to give people with disabilities on houseboats an easy place to tie up for lunch, the Lower Portland property hadn’t flooded in 30 years. But this is the fourth flood since last February and the most recent since March.
“We made it all flood proof to fight a flood every now and then, but to have four floods…” he said.
Flooding in Australia’s most populous state has become the new normal as residents in the Greater Sydney region deal with increasingly erratic seasonal fluctuations.
The region, which is home to 8.12 million people, or about a third of the country’s total population, always experiences some degree of flooding during the early summer months.
But what was once a once-in-a-generation event has become commonplace, raising questions about the long-term sustainability of flood-prone communities.
More than half a meter of rain (1.6ft) has drenched parts of eastern New South Wales in the past 48 hours, with leaks from several dams prompting flood warnings across the region.
In western Sydney, the Warragamba Dam – Australia’s largest urban reservoir – began to overflow at 2am on Sunday and at its peak 515 gigalitres was overflowing its walls – the same amount of water as was in Sydney Harbour.
A state water authority spokesman says the dam has no flood mitigation feature, so no water was released before the rain, which came when the state dam network was already 97 percent full. He said the dam was not responsible for the flooding.
“It’s a very unusual weather event. The Warragamba is definitely spilling into a particular river system, but there are whole huge areas of Sydney that are flooded that are not downstream of the Warragamba,” the spokesman said.
It’s a stunning turnaround from just 15 years ago, when the state decided to build a desalination plant to preserve Sydney’s water supply after years of drought.
But this year the La Nina weather system has produced more rain, and the Bureau of Meteorology says there’s a 50-50 chance it will form later in 2022 — twice the normal chance. The climate crisis is expected to increase the frequency and intensity of both La Nina and El Niño, which causes drought — meaning that if La Nina forms again this year, there could be even more rain.
Thousands are being told to evacuate
For Greater Sydney locals, flooding has become a recurring nightmare. Many are still recovering from the last flood in March, when water inundated many of the same areas, forcing businesses to close and rescue workers to wade through rotting mud to help trapped residents. The event caused $4.8 billion in damage, making it the country’s third costliest disaster, according to the Insurance Council of Australia. Hundreds of millimeters of rain fell over the weekend with more to come, New South Wales Emergency Services (SES) Commissioner Carlene York warned on Monday. “We are not yet out of danger of this major weather event,” York said. “I would remind people to make sensible decisions that keep you and your family safe.” More than 70 evacuation orders were issued for the greater Sydney area on Monday, covering more than 30,000 people, and just days after the school holidays, when many families would travel, millions more were advised to stay home. “Please avoid any essential travel. If you must travel, expect delays, there are many roads closed … and there are many detours,” York said. Jane Golding, from the Bureau of Meteorology, said some areas of Greater Sydney had received more rain than they would receive for the whole of July. “The numbers are comparable to (the rainfall) in March. What’s different about this event is that the rain accumulated over several days and that increases the risk of how the rivers react,” he said. Along with the heavy rain, winds of up to 100 kilometers (62 miles) per hour have been recorded on land, while gale force warnings are in place offshore where there are waves of up to five meters (16 feet). Dangerous conditions forced authorities to abandon efforts to rescue 21 crew members trapped on a Hong Kong-registered cargo ship, the Portland Bay, which was stranded without power off the coast of New South Wales. Instead, state police said a tug was dispatched to tow the ship further out to sea, where the Australian Maritime Safety Authority will try to restore its power.
Australia’s climate crisis
With the election of a federal Labor government in May, Australia is attempting to chart a new course in response to the climate crisis. And on recent trips abroad to meet world leaders, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has been at pains to stress that the country is now taking climate change seriously. “Every leader I’ve met in the last few days has expressed satisfaction with the change in Australia’s position,” Albanese told reporters on Friday after meeting OECD leaders in Paris. Australia has now officially signed up to cut emissions by 43% from 2005 levels by 2030, but after decades of inaction by previous governments, there is much more work to be done. Greg Mullins, former NSW Fire & Rescue Commissioner and head of the Emergency Leaders for Climate Action (ELCA) group, warned last month that, with catchments saturated and dams at capacity, more needed to be done to prepare for floods. In a six-point plan presented to the government, the group said it was “short-sighted and unsustainable” for Australia to spend more money on disaster response and recovery than measures to reduce risk. According to an analysis released by the Australian Conservation Foundation ahead of the election, federal budget spending on environment and climate programs fell by almost a third under the previous Coalition government. Climate Council CEO Amanda McKenzie says Australia is “inadequately prepared” for climate disasters and needs to spend more on building resilience in the most vulnerable areas. “Only a very small fraction of disaster spending is committed to preparedness and building resilience. We would expect to see a big change in this ratio to see a much greater focus on preparedness given the escalating risk of climate-driven disasters,” he said. New South Wales has its own climate change fund that spent more than A$224 million ($153 million) in 2020-2021 on programs to help communities become more resilient — including the 140,000 people who live in the Valley Hawkesbury-Nepean. the state’s most vulnerable location to flooding. That includes cafe owner Osmotherly, who says authorities could do more to reduce the risk of flooding by better managing dams so they don’t overflow and send more water into already flooded areas. He plans to assemble a local team to better understand how the dam works. But right now, there are more pressing matters. Osmotherly says about 100 people are trapped in their homes along a 10-kilometer (6.2-mile) stretch of road near the cafe — including an 80-year-old man who has packed his belongings and is waiting in his trailer for help to get out. So far Osmotherly said he can’t see any local rescue services in the area and plans to bring the elderly man home to sleep at his home. “Currently, there is no road access in here,” he said. “I have a rescue boat that we can get people in and out of. But there’s pretty much nowhere to go.” CNN’s Sandi Sidhu and Akanksha Sharma contributed to this report.
title: “Sydney Floods Climate Crisis Becomes New Normal For New South Wales Australia S Most Populous State " ShowToc: true date: “2022-11-05” author: “April Hollister”
“Every six hours to eight hours (we) try to take a hot shower and change again and try to have a coffee break or a short nap in between,” said Osmotherly, who says she’s barely slept for three days.
When Osmotherly opened the cafe 15 years ago to give people with disabilities on houseboats an easy place to tie up for lunch, the Lower Portland property hadn’t flooded in 30 years. But this is the fourth flood since last February and the most recent since March.
“We made it all flood proof to fight a flood every now and then, but to have four floods…” he said.
Flooding in Australia’s most populous state has become the new normal as residents in the Greater Sydney region deal with increasingly erratic seasonal fluctuations.
The region, which is home to 8.12 million people, or about a third of the country’s total population, always experiences some degree of flooding during the early summer months.
But what was once a once-in-a-generation event has become commonplace, raising questions about the long-term sustainability of flood-prone communities.
More than half a meter of rain (1.6ft) has drenched parts of eastern New South Wales in the past 48 hours, with leaks from several dams prompting flood warnings across the region.
In western Sydney, the Warragamba Dam – Australia’s largest urban reservoir – began to overflow at 2am on Sunday and at its peak 515 gigalitres was overflowing its walls – the same amount of water as was in Sydney Harbour.
A state water authority spokesman says the dam has no flood mitigation feature, so no water was released before the rain, which came when the state dam network was already 97 percent full. He said the dam was not responsible for the flooding.
“It’s a very unusual weather event. The Warragamba is definitely spilling into a particular river system, but there are whole huge areas of Sydney that are flooded that are not downstream of the Warragamba,” the spokesman said.
It’s a stunning turnaround from just 15 years ago, when the state decided to build a desalination plant to preserve Sydney’s water supply after years of drought.
But this year the La Nina weather system has produced more rain, and the Bureau of Meteorology says there’s a 50-50 chance it will form later in 2022 — twice the normal chance. The climate crisis is expected to increase the frequency and intensity of both La Nina and El Niño, which causes drought — meaning that if La Nina forms again this year, there could be even more rain.
Thousands are being told to evacuate
For Greater Sydney locals, flooding has become a recurring nightmare. Many are still recovering from the last flood in March, when water inundated many of the same areas, forcing businesses to close and rescue workers to wade through rotting mud to help trapped residents. The event caused $4.8 billion in damage, making it the country’s third costliest disaster, according to the Insurance Council of Australia. Hundreds of millimeters of rain fell over the weekend with more to come, New South Wales Emergency Services (SES) Commissioner Carlene York warned on Monday. “We are not yet out of danger of this major weather event,” York said. “I would remind people to make sensible decisions that keep you and your family safe.” More than 70 evacuation orders were issued for the greater Sydney area on Monday, covering more than 30,000 people, and just days after the school holidays, when many families would travel, millions more were advised to stay home. “Please avoid any essential travel. If you must travel, expect delays, there are many roads closed … and there are many detours,” York said. Jane Golding, from the Bureau of Meteorology, said some areas of Greater Sydney had received more rain than they would receive for the whole of July. “The numbers are comparable to (the rainfall) in March. What’s different about this event is that the rain accumulated over several days and that increases the risk of how the rivers react,” he said. Along with the heavy rain, winds of up to 100 kilometers (62 miles) per hour have been recorded on land, while gale force warnings are in place offshore where there are waves of up to five meters (16 feet). Dangerous conditions forced authorities to abandon efforts to rescue 21 crew members trapped on a Hong Kong-registered cargo ship, the Portland Bay, which was stranded without power off the coast of New South Wales. Instead, state police said a tug was dispatched to tow the ship further out to sea, where the Australian Maritime Safety Authority will try to restore its power.
Australia’s climate crisis
With the election of a federal Labor government in May, Australia is attempting to chart a new course in response to the climate crisis. And on recent trips abroad to meet world leaders, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has been at pains to stress that the country is now taking climate change seriously. “Every leader I’ve met in the last few days has expressed satisfaction with the change in Australia’s position,” Albanese told reporters on Friday after meeting OECD leaders in Paris. Australia has now officially signed up to cut emissions by 43% from 2005 levels by 2030, but after decades of inaction by previous governments, there is much more work to be done. Greg Mullins, former NSW Fire & Rescue Commissioner and head of the Emergency Leaders for Climate Action (ELCA) group, warned last month that, with catchments saturated and dams at capacity, more needed to be done to prepare for floods. In a six-point plan presented to the government, the group said it was “short-sighted and unsustainable” for Australia to spend more money on disaster response and recovery than measures to reduce risk. According to an analysis released by the Australian Conservation Foundation ahead of the election, federal budget spending on environment and climate programs fell by almost a third under the previous Coalition government. Climate Council CEO Amanda McKenzie says Australia is “inadequately prepared” for climate disasters and needs to spend more on building resilience in the most vulnerable areas. “Only a very small fraction of disaster spending is committed to preparedness and building resilience. We would expect to see a big change in this ratio to see a much greater focus on preparedness given the escalating risk of climate-driven disasters,” he said. New South Wales has its own climate change fund that spent more than A$224 million ($153 million) in 2020-2021 on programs to help communities become more resilient — including the 140,000 people who live in the Valley Hawkesbury-Nepean. the state’s most vulnerable location to flooding. That includes cafe owner Osmotherly, who says authorities could do more to reduce the risk of flooding by better managing dams so they don’t overflow and send more water into already flooded areas. He plans to assemble a local team to better understand how the dam works. But right now, there are more pressing matters. Osmotherly says about 100 people are trapped in their homes along a 10-kilometer (6.2-mile) stretch of road near the cafe — including an 80-year-old man who has packed his belongings and is waiting in his trailer for help to get out. So far Osmotherly said he can’t see any local rescue services in the area and plans to bring the elderly man home to sleep at his home. “Currently, there is no road access in here,” he said. “I have a rescue boat that we can get people in and out of. But there’s pretty much nowhere to go.” CNN’s Sandi Sidhu and Akanksha Sharma contributed to this report.
