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Sydney is preparing for its worst flooding in decades after record rains caused its largest dam to overflow and flooding prompted mandatory mass evacuation orders along Australia’s east coast.
Emergency services ordered people living in low-lying areas on the northwestern outskirts of the city to flee to safety, as authorities warned of a potentially “deadly” situation in the state of New South Wales.
It came after the Warragamba Dam, which provides much of Sydney’s drinking water, spilled on Saturday, prompting officials to warn that the downstream Hawkesbury River was expected to reach peak levels not seen since 1961. .
Office of Meteorology flood operations manager Justin Robinson said:
“It is one of the biggest floods that we are likely to see in a long time.”
Flooding had already increased in several areas, prompting mass evacuations, and authorities said another 4,000 people could be told to leave their homes in the coming days.
Authorities urged residents to heed the “dozens” of official warnings in affected areas, and Assistant State Emergency Service Commissioner Dean Storey said those in evacuation zones “must leave. righ now”.
People had already started flocking to evacuation centers in cities north of Sydney on Saturday when torrential rains hit a vast coastal region already drenched by an unusually wet summer.
State Premier Gladys Berejiklian said the region was experiencing a “one-in-100-year event” and that a national disaster had been declared.
In Taree, where television footage showed a house floating in a swollen river, some 150 people slept overnight in a local auditorium that had previously been used as a shelter for people fleeing wildfires.
Club Taree CEO Paul Allen described the flooding as a “catastrophe” and told public broadcaster ABC that some locals had “lost everything.”
The Bureau of Meteorology said wild weather was forecast to intensify again north of Sydney on Monday before subsiding later in the week.
Conditions “were going to be dangerous once again,” said lead climatologist Agata Imielska.
Rainfall records are forecast to continue to fall in the coming days, he added.
Emergency services reported receiving more than 7,000 calls for help and carrying out about 650 flood rescues since Thursday, with reinforcements requested from other states.
Rain and flooding were also expected to delay the already slow rollout of coronavirus vaccines in Sydney and surrounding areas.
Australia will begin the first major public phase of vaccine distribution tomorrow, although the program has been delayed on the government-announced schedule due to supply and delivery problems.
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