Australia Flooding Turns Deadly As Rivers Continue To Rise

 Ron Brackett

Published: March 24, 2021

This article is no longer being updated. For the latest on the flooding in Australia, click here.

At least one person is dead after days of flooding that submerged neighborhoods, forced thousands of people from their homes and led to hundreds of rescues.

The victim was trapped in a car that was swept up in floodwaters Wednesday in Sydney, according to The Associated Press.

Emergency personnel recovered the car after several hours.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison flew over the Hawkesbury River area northwest of Sydney, where boats were ferrying supplies to isolated communities as well as carrying stranded residents to safety.

“The expanse of water that went right across that region was quite devastating to see and to see the homes, only their roofs and those of out sheds,” Morrison said.

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Australian officials had ordered more evacuations Tuesday as floodwaters continued to rise in New South Wales.

Officials warned residents in low-lying areas in the northern part of the state to leave their homes Tuesday night, according to news.com.au.

Another 15,000 residents of the state on Australia's east coast have been told to be ready to evacuate as the flooding continues. They would join about 18,000 people who have already been forced from their homes.

"After days of heavy rain we're finally seeing it start to ease. While it's some good news for hard hit communities, it's not the end of the story. Many areas are still facing significant flood risk, and in some communities, waters are yet to peak," the Bureau of Meteorology said in a tweet.

The bureau issued flood warnings for more than a half dozen rivers. Major flooding is expected to continue in several places through Wednesday, and one expert warned that some river flooding could continue for weeks or months.

River flooding also has forced evacuations in the neighboring state of Queensland. As many as 60 homes were cut off by water from the Logan River near Beaudesert, the Australian Broadcasting Corp. reported.

New South Wales has experienced its worst flooding in decades, with some areas receiving eight months worth of rain in the past week, Agata Imielska, a senior climatologist at the Bureau of Meteorology, told News Corp Australia.

More than 3 feet of rain fell in some parts of the state in the past seven days, according to the bureau.

A property is surrounded by floodwaters in Londonderry on the outskirts of Sydney, Australia, on Tuesday, March 23, 2021. Hundreds of people have been rescued from floodwaters that have isolated dozens of towns in Australia's most populous state of New South Wales and forced thousands to evacuate their homes after record rain inundated the country's east coast.

"Several hundred homes have been flooded, roads damaged, wildlife lost [and] telecommunications and power outages across the flooded areas have been reported," Australia's Prime Minister Scott Morrison said.

Emergency crews have conducted at least 700 rescues, the BBC reported.

One family had to be rescued twice when the boat that was evacuating them capsized as it neared the Sackville Ferry Wharf north of Sydney on Tuesday afternoon, Seven News reported. Four family members and three State Emergency Service crew members were aboard the boat when it sank.

The severe weather forced 280 schools across the state to close.

Victoria Dodds, a hydrologist and flood operations manager with the meteorology bureau, said rivers in New South Wales could stay flooded for weeks or months.

“There’s flooding happening right across the state, eastern coastal catchments where we’ve seen these really heavy falls tend to respond very quickly (to clearing conditions),” Dodds told News Corp Australia.

“So as that rain clears … the situation could improve very quickly. However in western NSW once the rivers get going, they can keep flowing for not just days but weeks or months on end.”

In addition to New South Wales and Queensland, meteorologists say there is an "emerging risk" of flooding for eastern Victoria and eastern Tasmania as a coastal low moves south of the mainland.

"The coastal low moves into the eastern Bass Strait on Wednesday, shifting our focus to the south," BOM meteorologist Jackson Browne said.

Paul Zammit carries his pet emu, Gookie, after rescuing her from floodwater in Windsor, northwest of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, on Tuesday, March 23, 2021.

The Weather Company’s primary journalistic mission is to report on breaking weather news, the environment and the importance of science to our lives. This story does not necessarily represent the position of our parent company, IBM.

The Weather Company’s primary journalistic mission is to report on breaking weather news, the environment and the importance of science to our lives. This story does not necessarily represent the position of our parent company, IBM.