Today (March 22), tens of thousands of people were evacuated when nearly 40 residential areas were included in the list of areas suffering a natural disaster.
Today is the third consecutive day of widespread flooding and displacement of about 18,000 people living in the western suburbs of Sydney and the northern part of New South Wales.
Ms. Gladys Berejiklian, Premier of New South Wales, said that besides the ongoing emergency relief operations, the Australian federal government also immediately coordinated with the state of New South Wales to provide financial assistance to people in the disaster area.
“34 areas or possibly up to 38 areas are designated by the government as disaster prone. This means that people living in these communities will receive AUD 1000 per adult and AUD 400. Floods will continue to evolve over the coming days as weather forecast indicates heavy rains will continue in the Illawarra region and the southern coast of the state, “said Ms Gladys Berejiklian.
In addition to heavy rains for several consecutive days, the discharge of the Warragamba reservoir is a major cause of flooding in the Sydney suburbs. And in North New South Wales, after nearly a week, there was a total rainfall of 900mm, three times the average rainfall of March, many areas were submerged in water.
According to insurance company IAG, although complete data is not yet available, it is estimated that this flood could cost 169 million AUD. The widespread flooding also affected Covid-19 vaccination plans in the state of New South Wales as many clinics were unable to open today to welcome vaccinated people.
It is expected that in the coming days, the rain and flood image in the Australian state of New South Wales will continue to deteriorate because the Warragamba reservoir continues to overflow. Meanwhile, some other Australian states such as Queensland and South Australia have also started to experience floods. Some experts believe that this is the inevitable consequence of the historic forest fire that took place in Australia more than a year ago./.