Half a million Australians told to evacuate or be ready to as torrential rain lashes Sydney

Half a million people in and around Sydney have now been told to evacuate or prepare to flee flooding as record breaking rain lashed an unusually long stretch of Australia’s east coast.

The brutal rain has already claimed several lives and damaged thousands of properties.

“Treacherous weather conditions” now threaten the five million residents of Sydney, New South Wales’ state emergency services minister Steph Cooke said, as river levels surged.

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Dozens of areas are on high alert for major flooding expected along several waterways in and in the vicinity of the country’s most populous city.

Australia’s Bureau of Meteorology has warned of life-threatening flash flooding and dangerous winds of potentially more than 56mph (90kph).

“We do believe that things will get worse before they get better,” New South Wales Premier Dominic Perrottet warned.

The State Emergency Service has issued evacuation orders to 200,000 residents and sent evacuation warnings to another 300,000.

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Coastal communities as far as 120 miles (200km) south of Sydney are also preparing for minor flooding, and waters were also rising in Brisbane, 450 miles north of Sydney, as severe thunderstorms struck.

Two inch (5cm) hail stones pounded the town of Inglewood early on Thursday.

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‘Very dangerous situation’

Bureau of Meteorology forecaster Laura Boekel said thunderstorms brought the chance of more flooding, extending 280 miles (450km) north from Brisbane to Bundaberg during the next day or two.

“This is a very dangerous and potentially life-threatening situation for southeast Queensland,” she said.

Earlier this week Brisbane was pummelled by a “rain bomb” that caused evacuations, power outages and school closures.

Since 22 February, 14 people have died in the flooding in Queensland and neighbouring New South Wales.

Australia ‘unprepared for weather supercharged by climate change’

The climate crisis is driving temperature changes in Australia, where heat is rising faster than the global average, allowing the atmosphere to hold more moisture, making rain more extreme.

But despite warnings about climate change, “Australia is unprepared for the supercharged weather that it is now driving, such as the current floods in Queensland and NSW,” according to professor Hilary Bambrick from Queensland University of Technology, who co-authored Australia’s annual assessment of progress on climate adaptation.

“Climate change means that Australia’s extreme weather – heat, drought, bushfires and floods – will continue to get much, much worse if we don’t act now,” she said.

The professor called for urgent cutting of pollution to slow warming and an adaptation strategy to prepare for “increasingly catastrophic events”.

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