Millions of residents of the Australian state of New South Wales (NSW) were on Wednesday told to prepare for possible flooding as a severe wet weather system hit the country’s east coast.
Authorities in NSW on Wednesday issued heavy rainfall warnings for communities along almost 1,000 km of the state’s coastline, including Sydney.
The Bureau of Meteorology (BoM) said that the significant rain event driven by three separate weather systems was expected to bring isolated rainfall totals of up to 75 millimetres on Wednesday night, followed by up to 120 millimetres on Thursday and another 60 millimetres on Friday.
Addressing a press conference on Wednesday afternoon, NSW State Emergency Service Deputy Commissioner Debbie Platz said that some communities that have been hit by heavy rainfall in recent months could experience flooding overnight.
She said that water from previous severe rainfall events made flooding more likely and warned residents that complacency is a risk.
“This year we have seen significant weather events, significant flooding and a lot of damage. We know the community is tired and volunteers are tired,” Platz said.
Regions north of Sydney experienced record-breaking flooding in May that caused five deaths.
Steve Bernasconi, a hazard preparedness manager at the BoM, said on Wednesday that the current event was not expected to bring enough rain to prompt a severe weather warning, but that it could cause isolated major flooding due to some water catchments already being at capacity, Xinhua news agency reported.
Earlier on August 2, more than 27,500 homes in the east coast Australian state of NSW were without power because of damage from heavy rain, strong winds and snowfall, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) had reported.
ABC quoted local power provider Essential Energy as saying that impacted customers should prepare for the power outages to continue overnight, because though its crews were working to restore power “where it is safe to do so,” severe weather would cause delays.
The NSW State Emergency Service (SES) had said on its website that moderate to heavy rainfall was forecast to persist in the Coffs Coast, Mid North Coast, Upper Hunter and New England regions in the state on Saturday afternoon, and it had issued 28 warnings about storms, and predicted minor flooding, as well as possible moderate flooding.
Nicole Hogan, Assistant Commissioner of NSW SES, had said that heavy and persistent rainfall could cause roads to become flooded and impassable.
