Thousands of Australians in Sydney were ordered to evacuate their homes on Sunday as torrential rains hit the country’s largest city and flooded its outskirts.
Throughout the city roads were blocked by water. The authorities issued at least 18 evacuation orders in the west of the city, an area that was affected by severe flooding last March.
“This is a life-threatening emergency situation,” Stephanie Cooke, Minister for Emergency Services for the state of New South Wales, told reporters.
Australia has suffered from climate change with bushfires, rains and floods becoming more common and intense.
With worsening weather expected in the coming days, Cooke described the flooding as a “rapidly evolving situation” and warned citizens to be “prepared to evacuate at any time.”
Emergency services have attended more than 29 flood rescues and have been summoned more than 1,400 times in the last 24 hours, he said.
With the flooding of the east coast last March, caused by severe storms that devastated the west of Sydney, there were 20 deaths.
