Over 50,000 residents affected by flood emergency in Sydney – National

Hundreds of homes have been submerged in and around Australia’s largest city in a flood emergency that has affected 50,000 people, officials said on Tuesday.

Emergency teams overnight rescued 100 people trapped in cars on flooded streets or in flooded homes in the Sydney area, said Ashley Sullivan, head of the State Emergency Service.

Days of torrential rain have burst levees and burst waterways, causing a fourth flood emergency in 16 months in parts of the city of 5 million.

The New South Wales state government declared a disaster in 23 local government areas overnight and activated federal financial assistance to flood victims.

Evacuation orders and warnings to prepare to leave homes affected 50,000 people, up from 32,000 on Monday, New South Wales Premier Dominic Perrottet said.

“This event is far from over. Please don’t be complacent wherever you are. Please be careful when driving on our roads. There is still a significant risk of flash flooding in our state,” Perrottet said.

Ambulance Services Secretary Steph Cooke commended the skills and dedication of rescue crews to prevent death or serious injury through the fourth day of the flood emergency.

Parts of southern Sydney were hit by more than 20 centimeters of rain in 24 hours, more than 17 percent of the city’s annual average, Bureau of Meteorology meteorologist Jonathan How said.

Severe weather warnings of heavy rain remained in place in Sydney’s eastern suburbs on Tuesday. The warnings also extended north of Sydney along the coast and into the Hunter Valley.

The worst of the flooding occurred along the Hawkesbury-Nepean river system on Sydney’s northern and western fringes.

“The good news is that it appears to be mostly dry through tomorrow afternoon, but of course we are reminding people that these floods will remain very high even after the rains have stopped,” How said.

“A lot of rain fell overnight and that means some rivers are peaking for a second time. So you have to take many days, if not a week, to see these tides recede,” How added.

The wild weather and mountainous seas along the New South Wales coast thwarted plans to tow a wrecked cargo ship with 21 crew members to the safety of the open sea.

The ship lost power on Monday morning after leaving Wollongong Harbour, south of Sydney, and risked running aground from 8-metre waves and winds that blew against cliffs at 30 knots.

An attempt to use tugs to tow the ship out to sea ended when a tow line snapped in an 11-metre swell late Monday, Port Authority chief executive Philip Holliday said.

The ship held its position farther from shore Tuesday than Monday with two anchors and the help of two tugs. The new plan was to tow the ship to Sydney as early as Wednesday when weather and sea conditions calmed down, Holliday said. The original plan was for the ship’s crew to repair their engine at sea.

“We’re in a better position than yesterday,” said Holliday. “We’re relatively safe.”

Perrottet described the tug crews’ response Monday to rescue the ship as “heroic”.

“I want to thank those men and women who were on those crews last night for the heroic work they did in incredibly treacherous conditions. To have an 11 meter wave, to undergo this work and perform it is incredibly impressive,” said Perrottet.