SYDNEY (AP) – Heavy rainfall is expected to ease across Australia’s east coast, but flooding will persist for days in the state of New South Wales, where 15,000 people were nervously waiting for possible orders on Tuesday. evacuation.
Some 18,000 residents of Australia’s most populous state have fled their homes since last week, with warnings that the clean-up could be extended until April.
New South Wales Prime Minister Gladys Berejiklian said on Tuesday that several weather fronts continued to produce large swathes of the state.
Some parts of the state had recorded two-thirds of annual rainfall in less than a week.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison said the rain emergency was expected to subside by the end of Wednesday, but “the waters remain persistent for some time.”
“I am advised that the rain and flood situation remains dynamic and extremely complex,” Morrison said.
The skies are expected to clear in parts of Sydney and the north coast by the end of Tuesday.
“It’s almost impossible to believe, but we’ll see the blue sky and sun just later this afternoon west of Sydney and on the north coast,” government meteorologist Agata Imielska said.
“It is very important to remember that even as we return the blue sky and the sun, the floods will continue and the risk of flooding will continue,” Imielska added.
Morrison said the New South Wales government had already called for 1,000 defense personnel to help clean up after the floods.
Flooding rain had spread along the coast of New South Wales across the Queensland state border to the north and almost as far as the Victoria border to the south.