Southeast Australia: Floods force thousands of people to leave their homes

• A severe weather system has pummeled large areas of Victoria state.
• Some areas have had more than a month’s worth of rain since Wednesday.
• The Bureau of Meteorology forecaster Dean Narramore was speaking to Australian public broadcaster ABC television.

After two days of nonstop rain forced dams to overflow and rivers to burst their banks, thousands of people in southeast Australia have been ordered to abandon their homes.

According to experts, a severe weather system has pummelling large areas of Victoria state, southern New South Wales, and the northern sections of the island state of Tasmania. Some of these areas have had more than a month’s worth of rain since late on Wednesday.

According to Bureau of Meteorology forecaster Dean Narramore, “[this] has caused widespread, substantial flooding with some rivers experiencing record flooding and this is only going to continue to travel downstream and grow worse.” Dean Narramore was speaking to Australian public broadcaster ABC television.

The neighborhood of Maribyrnong in western Melbourne, the second-most populous state in Australia, was inundated by the increasing seas, making Victoria the worst-hit state.

Social media videos showed individuals trudging through knee-deep water with their animals, while other individuals were being rescued in boats.

Daniel Andrews, the premier of Victoria, warned the ABC that it was far from over and that the waters will increase. More and more homes will be flooded, the floods will continue to rise, and more and more communities will be cut off.

He stated that the Victorian government was getting ready to reopen a COVID-19 quarantine facility to house people whose homes were uninhabitable.

“This flood event has been very, very serious, and it is far from over.”

On Friday morning, the lower floor of the Anglers Tavern, a bar located beside the Maribyrnong River, was nearly totally underwater.

With the state’s three major dams already overflowing or about to, near-record flood levels were anticipated later on Friday evening in the towns of Shepparton and Murchison, north of Melbourne.

However, Margaret Cook of the University of the Sunshine Coast noted that September was wetter and cooler than usual, “which meant the ground was already saturated in many regions.” Victoria is typically spared significant floods. Less water evaporates in colder climates.

All of the things put the state in a flood-prone position, she wrote in the Conversation.

Tasmania, an island state south of Victoria, was likewise bracing for large floods in its northern regions.

Orders for widespread evacuation were issued, and 120 routes had to be closed due to excessive rain.

Floodwaters pose a risk to lives, according to a statement from Tasmania’s emergency service.

An evacuation center was established in New South Wales, the state with the most population after torrential rain struck Forbes on Thursday night, which is located around 390 kilometers (240 miles) west of Sydney.

According to the state’s emergency agency, flooding in Forbes may reach its climax on Friday as water flows downstream.

Due to two years’ worth of La Nina weather cycles, which increase the western Pacific’s temperature and improve cloud and rain formation over eastern Australia, Australia’s east coast has been regularly battered by heavy rains.

More than 20 people lost their lives in flooding on the east coast in February and March, which also ravaged sections of Queensland and northern New South Wales. In July, floods in Sydney’s western suburbs forced tens of thousands of residents to leave their homes.

Sydney has already experienced its wettest year on record so far this year.

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