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In the lower parts of the city, the water is already 1.5 meters high in some places. “We now face dangers on multiple fronts – flash flooding, rivers overflowing and coastal erosion,” New South Wales Emergency Services Minister Steph Cooke said in a televised news conference. “This is a life-threatening emergency,” Cooke said.
More than 200 millimeters of rain has fallen in many areas, with peaks of 350 millimeters, according to the weather services. Heavy rainfall has caused Sydney’s main dam to leak. Authorities fear that the situation will worsen and the dam will overflow, just like the Warragamba dam at the beginning of last year. An adjacent place had to be evacuated.
Flash floods
“There is no room for the water to stay in the dams. They start to overflow. The rivers flow very fast and are very dangerous. And then we have the risk of flash flooding, depending on where the rain falls,” the regional authorities said.
In the village of Menangle, about 70 kilometers southwest of Sydney, the water level in the River Nepean has risen to a height of 16.5 meters. That is just below the record level of 16.8 meters that was measured in April of this year.
On Saturday, 29 people were rescued from flooded areas, including one who was hung from a pole for an hour as aid workers struggled to reach the victims.
The Australian government has provided the state with 100 soldiers to help with sandbags and two helicopters, Defense Secretary Richard Marles said on Sky News.
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