More than 200,000 people have had to evacuate their homes in the state of New South Wales, on the Australian east coast, to escape the muddy waters which, for more than a week, have been overflowing rivers and rivers on a strip of several hundred kilometers along the Pacific coast. According to a provisional report, fourteen people died. This figure could increase as more rain is expected this weekend and land everywhere is already waterlogged.
Friday March 4, due to the risk of thunderstorms and flash floods, the authorities of the State of Queensland, further north, asked part of the population to stay at home. The day before, they had already called on parents of students to pick up their children from schools as soon as possible. “It is a serious situation. These are unprecedented times. I lived in Brisbane [la capitale du Queensland] practically all my life and I have never seen storms and floods like these,” at said state premier Annastacia Palaszczuk.
It was in this area that the situation began to seriously deteriorate, from Sunday February 27, when “rain bombs” in the words of the head of government, fell from the sky. In just three days, Brisbane received 80% of its annual rainfall. The most affected areas recorded up to 400 millimeters of water in the space of twenty-four hours. “The mud army”, the volunteers who were about to begin the clearing and cleaning work, were ordered to wait until Saturday before intervening because of the “volatility” weather conditions.
Open landfill
In the state of New South Wales, the bad weather first affected the border region of Queensland and, in particular, the town of Lismore, where the inhabitants, surprised by the rapidity of the rising waters, did not sometimes had no choice but to rip open their roofs to get out of flooded houses to the second floor and wait there for help to finally intervene. Helicopter operations were notably delayed by the violence of the storm. Several people, having failed to extricate themselves in time, died. Friday, the city, which had never experienced such a catastrophe, looked like a huge open dump with its streets littered with rubbish, broken furniture and overturned cars. Not far from there, the town of Mullumbimby remained cut off from the world.
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