The Australian east coast has repeatedly struggled with heavy rain and flooding in recent months. The state of Victoria was hit particularly hard this time. Thousands of people have to leave their homes. The region's head of government warns that it's far from over.
Thousands of people in three states in south-east Australia have been asked to leave their homes because of the flooding. The situation was worst in Victoria, Australia's second most populous state.
Maribyrnong, a suburb of Victoria's capital Melbourne, was flooded on Friday morning. Victoria's Prime Minister Daniel Andrews told ABC Radio that his government was planning to open a corona quarantine center as an emergency shelter. "This was a very, very significant flood event and it's far from over," Andrews said. The water continues to rise "and more and more houses are flooded, more and more communities are cut off from the outside world". According to the AAP news agency, almost 10,000 households in Melbourne were without power overnight.
The north of the island of Tasmania, off Victoria, was also preparing for flooding. "The floods are life-threatening," warned the Tasmanian Disaster Management Agency. In the most populous state of New South Wales, an evacuation center was set up in Forbes, an inland city about five hours' drive east of the metropolis Sydney, after heavy rains on Thursday evening. The peak of the flooding in Forbes is expected for this Friday.
In the past two years, exceptionally heavy rainfall and flooding have repeatedly occurred on Australia's east coast. In March, flooding in parts of the states of Queensland and New South Wales caused major damage. More than 20 people died. In July, an evacuation order was issued for tens of thousands of Sydney residents because of flooding that inundated several suburbs of Australia's largest city.
