Flash floods swept away hundreds of homes in southeastern Australia on Friday morning, with waterlogged residents now facing a “nerve-wracking” wait to assess the damage.
A major flooding emergency was declared in Victoria — Australia’s second-most populous state — where rapidly rising waters forced evacuations in the Melbourne suburb of Maribyrnong.
Cars left on the streets of the suburb were almost completely swallowed by the floods, while some stranded residents had to be saved by inflatable rescue boats.
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State Premier Daniel Andrews told reporters that 500 homes in Victoria had been “inundated”, while a further 500 properties were surrounded by floods and cut off from emergency services.
While the worst of the rain had passed by late Friday morning, the state emergency service warned the floods would get worse as water flowed downstream into swollen river catchments.
About 4,000 homes in Shepparton, about two hours north of Melbourne, could be flooded by early next week, Tim Wiebusch said in a statement.
“There are not many parts of Victoria that aren’t experiencing major flooding over the coming days,” emergency services spokesman, Tim Wiebusch, made a clarification to the reporters.
Emergency management commissioner Andrew Crisp said that the Australian army was deployed to rescue residents from their waterlogged houses.
“This is a major emergency for the state of Victoria,” Andrew Crisp said during the rescue mission.
Australia’s east coast has been repeatedly lashed by heavy rainfall in the past two years, driven by back-to-back La Nina cycles
Also, there was a signal of flash floods in the Northern parts of Tasmania — an island state south of Victoria.
Mass evacuation orders were issued by the Australian government, while heavy rains forced the closure of some 120 roads.
In New South Wales — Australia’s most populous state — an evacuation Centre was set up after intense downpours on Thursday evening in Forbes, an inland town about five hours’ drive east of Sydney.
The east coast flooding disaster in March — caused by heavy storms in Queensland and New South Wales — claimed more than 20 lives.
