Sydney : Heavy rain triggered flash floods in southeast Australia, cutting off entire towns and forcing some residents onto rooftops, as authorities issued evacuation orders with river levels surpassing danger thresholds.
According to Reuters, rural towns in the Hunter and Mid North Coast regions of New South Wales, the country’s most populous state, were the worst affected, with some areas receiving more than four months’ worth of rain in the past 24 hours.
Australia’s Bureau of Meteorology indicated that some areas could receive up to 300 millimetres of rain in the next 24 hours, triple the average rainfall for May.
Authorities said that some residents were trapped on verandas and rooftops, and emergency teams faced overnight difficulties in reaching the area by boat or air in the towns of Taree and Glenthorne, located along the Manning River more than 300 kilometres north of Sydney.
