Australian authorities issued fresh flood evacuation orders for East coast

Australian authorities issued fresh flood evacuation orders for parts of the east coast today, even as Sydney woke up to blue skies for the first time in five days. A wild weather system that dumped more than two-thirds of annual rainfall over a week in several places in the most populous state of New South Wales (NSW) brought widespread destruction and led to evacuation orders.

 

6,000 more people were evacuated in the last 24 hours, NSW



Premier Gladys Berejiklian said, while new orders were issued for affected residents in Sydney’s western regions to move to safe zones. No deaths were reported so far, but more than 40,000 people in the state have been evacuated.

 

Rains eased from yesterday, leaving thousands of people displaced and sweeping away houses, farms, livestock and roads but the slowly swelling rivers remain a risk for many days.