Brisbane, March 1 (BNA): Tens of thousands of people were ordered to evacuate their homes by Tuesday and hundreds of thousands more were told to prepare to flee as parts of Australia’s southeast coast were inundated by the worst flooding in more than a decade. . At least 10 people died.
New South Wales Premier Dominic Perrottet said 1,000 people had been rescued in the state by Tuesday and more than 6,000 calls had been made to authorities for help, according to the Associated Press.
The floodwaters were moving south into New South Wales from Queensland in the region’s worst disaster since what was described as a once-in-a-century event in 2011.
Perotet said 40,000 people have been ordered to evacuate, while another 300,000 have been placed under evacuation alerts.
Government meteorologist Jonathan Howe described recent rainfall in northern New South Wales and southern Queensland as “astronomical”.
Nine of the 10 deaths reported so far are in Queensland. A 76-year-old man who disappeared with his car in floodwaters northwest of Brisbane on Sunday was confirmed dead.
Queensland Police Commissioner Katharina Carroll said another man in his 70s is still missing after he fell from his moored yacht in the state capital Brisbane into an swollen river on Saturday.
A clean-up was underway in Brisbane, Australia’s third most populous city, although more storms are expected later in the week. Brisbane Mayor Lord Adrian Schreiner urged people to sign up for the “mud army”, named for the thousands of volunteers who mobilized to help after the 2011 floods.
Thousands of homes were inundated in Brisbane on Sunday, many due to bloating streams in suburbs such as Ashgrove, where Kelvin Barfoot and his family, including his mother-in-law, 99-year-old Mina Baker, were forced to evacuate in the state. Emergency service rescue boat.
The family returned to the top floor of their two-story home and began removing damaged furniture and electrical appliances, which were covered in about 1.5 meters (5 feet) of water.
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