Already flooded towns in eastern Australia were on high alert on Monday after a weekend of heavy rain, with authorities warning the furious weather system could continue until the end of this week and trigger renewed riverside eruptions. Thousands of homes and farms in large parts of New South Wales and Victoria, Australia’s two most populous states, have been flooded and five people have died in the country as the east enters the third week of its fourth flood crisis of the year.
About 200 flood warnings were still in place across the two states on Monday morning, including 132 in New South Wales. “The flood warnings are unbelievable … there are so many rivers flowing from southern Queensland to northern Victoria,” Bureau of Meteorology forecaster Dean Narramore said.
Residents in parts of the 77,000-strong town of Lismore, about 700 kilometers north of Sydney, which were devastated by floods in March, faced further flooding at the weekend after up to 200 millimeters of rain. The severe weather warning was lifted on Monday, but a flood alert remains in place for the region.
Many agricultural areas were badly affected, including the Morea, where the local river peaked near historic flood levels. “The damage is appalling and extensive,” Morea Mayor Mark Johnson told ABC television. “There will be some farmers who will get some crops, but there will be many… who won’t get anything this year.”
Emergency services have urged residents to avoid driving on flooded roads as they search for a woman who is said to have tried to escape from a vehicle stuck in floodwaters near the town of Mudgee. In the neighboring state of Victoria, residents of Echuca remain sheltered behind an earthen levee built last week as the Murray, Australia’s longest river, reached a nearly 30-year high. The federal government said on Monday it would set aside A$577 million ($370 million) a day before the state budget is released to speed up the processing of aid payments.
