Floods devastate Australia’s east coast


Large parts of the Australian state of New South Wales on the east coast are again under water after repeated heavy rain. The emergency services are facing “the largest flood operation in the history of the state,” Australian broadcaster ABC reported on Tuesday. More and more responders and volunteers would join the rescue teams, primarily from New Zealand, Singapore and the United States.

“We’ve had volunteers from all over the world when it comes to fighting forest fires, but as far as I know this is the first time they’ve come for floods,” said the region’s Prime Minister Dominic Perrottet.

West of the metropolis of Sydney, more than 200 people have been rescued from the floods since Monday. Elsewhere, evacuation orders were issued on Tuesday because the floodwaters had risen rapidly. It is the second devastating flood in two weeks. Huge masses of water drained from the Wyangala Dam above the Lachlan River, some 320 kilometers from Sydney. On Monday alone, 230,000 megaliters per day fell from the dam into the river, it said. (One megaliter equals one million liters.) Video footage from 9News showed the water sweeping away trees and plants.



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