SYDNEY (HRNW) – Already-flooded towns across Australia’s east were on high alert on Monday after a weekend of heavy rains, with authorities warning a wild weather system could persist until later this week and trigger renewed riverbank bursts.
Thousands of homes and farms over a wide swathe of New South Wales and Victoria, Australia’s two most populous states, have been inundated and five people in the country have lost their lives as the year’s fourth flooding crisis in the east enters its third week.
About 200 flood warnings remained in place in both states as of Monday morning, with 132 of those in New South Wales.
“The flood warnings are incredible … there are so many rivers experiencing flooding from southern Queensland all the way down into Northern Victoria,” Bureau of Meteorology forecaster Dean Narramore said.