Some Australians return home as others evacuated in flood crisis
Sign up now: Get insights on Asia's fast-moving developments
Clean-up efforts have begun for some areas ravaged by the worst flooding to hit Australia in decades. But water levels are still rising in other regions, and authorities are warning that the danger hasn't passed.
SYDNEY • Australians hit by devastating flood waters began returning to their homes yesterday as skies cleared and the authorities accelerated clean-up efforts, though fresh evacuation orders were issued in some areas where water levels were still rising.
Relentless rain for five straight days - the worst downpour in more than half a century - burst river banks, inundating homes, roads, bridges and farms and cutting off entire towns in Australia's east.
More than 40,000 people were forced to move to safe zones and two men died after their cars became trapped in flood waters.
Water continued to flow from overloaded dams and rivers yesterday, particularly in New South Wales (NSW) state, leading the authorities to urge caution.
"Even though the sun is now shining, the danger has not passed," the Australian Bureau of Meteorology said in a statement.
Rising flood waters from the Mehi River split Moree, a regional town 650km north-west of Sydney, into two, emergency services said.
Moree resident Jaimee Maunder said the main road into the town had been cut, and she had not been able to leave her home since the flooding intensified on Tuesday.
"We got some supplies before the floods hit," Ms Maunder told Reuters, adding that people in lower-lying areas had been evacuated to emergency facilities in the town. "You can't drive through it, not when it's flooding."
The damage is more limited in the flat agricultural plains around Moree, where the drenching is expected to prime farmland ahead of the planting window next month for wheat, the country's most important crop.
Major flooding also continues in Sydney's western suburbs of North Richmond and Windsor, while fresh evacuation orders were issued for some areas in the centre of NSW.
Still, there were some signs of relief as rescue teams, including those from the defence force, took advantage of eased conditions in several areas to clear debris and deliver supplies.
"The best advice I've received this morning is that most of the river systems, we believe, have peaked," NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian said during a televised news briefing.
"And now we are considering... which communities are able to return... in the next few days, and we just ask for everybody's patience."
About 40 per cent of Australia's population of 25 million was affected by the severe weather system that stretched across an area the size of Alaska in recent days, touching every mainland state or territory but one.
Several evacuation orders have been lifted, but there were still about 20,000 people waiting in rescue centres, Ms Berejiklian said.
REUTERS