Australia floods after worst torrential rain in decades

Last week, Australia’s east coast experienced the country’s worst heavy rain in decades.

The rainy weather is expected to continue for several more days and ten people have died so far in the floods. According to the report, a large number of people were reported missing News Letters.

Tens of thousands of people have already been evacuated from their homes and authorities have called on another 300,000 to prepare to flee, writes TT.

Could lead to disaster in Sydney

The torrential rains mainly affected the states of Queensland and New South Wales, with many cities completely inundated and thousands of stranded people needing rescue from the Australian army and rescue services.

Heavy rain is now feared to hit Sydney hard, with up to 200mm of rain expected over six hours on Tuesday afternoon, according to the Australian Meteorological Agency.

After warnings from authorities, city residents are preparing for a catastrophic situation, ABC News writes.

New South Wales Governor Dominic Beirut warned on Tuesday that “the worst is still ahead.”

Hard hit by natural disasters

The rain chaos is caused by the climate on the country’s east coast for the second year in a row, which is dominated by the “La Nina” phenomenon known for causing unusually heavy rainfall.

The floods in Australia are one of the many natural disasters that have hit the country in recent years. In 2019 and 2020, droughts hit the country, which caused the worst bushfires in Australia’s history when 34 people died.

However, researchers aren’t entirely sure if rainy weather can be linked to climate change. But one thing is for sure, that heavy rainfall has become increasingly common in Australia in recent decades.

“In recent decades, we’ve already seen an increase in the frequency and intensity of heavy precipitation and we expect this trend to continue in the future,” Nina Ridder, a climate researcher at the University of New South Wales, told ABC News.