(Sydney) Thousands of residents of the Australian east coast have been asked to leave their homes in anticipation of thunderstorms which could hit the localities devastated a few weeks ago by unprecedented deadly floods on Tuesday.
Posted at 10:39 p.m.
Evacuation orders were given in particular to Lismore, the city most affected by the torrential rains which fell for nearly two weeks at the end of February. In this locality, a flood of 14.3 meters had engulfed houses, carried away cars and hundreds of inhabitants had been forced to take refuge on their roofs.
In order to prevent the emergency services from being again overwhelmed by the number of people to be evacuated following “these potentially deadly storms and floods”, they deployed “additional human resources, vehicles, boats and helicopters”.
February floods killed at least 21 people in the states of Queensland and New South Wales and thousands of people were forced to evacuate.
Many are still living in temporary accommodation in areas where heavy rains are expected this week.
“As the watersheds are now saturated, there is an increased risk of dangerous and deadly flash floods and even landslides during this event,” the National Meteorological Office said Monday.
In the state of Queensland, a man was found dead Monday in his car, swept away during a flash flood.
Australia has been hit hard in recent years by climate change: droughts, deadly bushfires and floods are becoming more frequent and intense.