Authorities on Friday (October 14th) asked several thousand Australians to evacuate their homes in the south-east of the country to escape the floods that threaten localities in three different states.
On Friday morning, rapidly rising waters overwhelmed Maribyrnong, a suburb of Melbourne in Victoria state, which was worst affected. The government of the state, Australia’s second most populous state, is preparing to reopen a Covid-19 quarantine center to house people whose homes were uninhabitable, state leader Daniel Andrews said on Friday morning. “It was a very, very significant flood and it’s far from over”he told ABC radio. “The real challenge is that the waters continue to rise and more and more houses are flooded, more and more localities are isolated”he pointed out.
On the front line against climate change
Northern Tasmania, an island state south of Victoria, was also bracing for major flooding on Friday. Mass evacuation orders were issued and heavy rains forced the closure of some 120 roads. “Floods put lives at risk”, the Tasmania State Emergency Service said in a statement. In New South Wales, Australia’s most populous state, an evacuation center was set up after heavy rainfall on Thursday evening in Forbes, an inland town about five o’clock drive east of Sydney.
Australia is on the frontline of the consequences of climate change, with floods, bushfires, cyclones and droughts becoming more frequent and intense as the planet heats up, scientists warn.