Another 150 mm of rain recorded in parts of Sydney since yesterday. Although again mostly in the southern suburbs, not directly where I am – we only got a bit over 40 mm here. In fact, the rain stopped falling for a brief period around lunchtime today, and I took the opportunity to take Scully for a walk and get some sushi for lunch. Our garage didn’t even flood!
In terms of more widespread flooding, today was worse than yesterday, as rivers were still rising. About 30,000 people have been evacuated under evacuation orders in place across 70 localities. And sadly a handful of people have died in the floodwaters. Thousands more have needed rescuing. There’s a cargo ship stranded off the coast in heavy seas with a broken engine, and it’s been impossible for rescue helicopters to get the crew off due to the rough sea. There was danger the ship might drift ashore and run aground, but tugboats are now pushing it further out to sea.
We’re still expecting more heavy falls overnight and into tomorrow, but it should ease up during the day. Hopefully.
Looking on the funny side, Australia’s two main satirical “news” websites (like The Onion), have the following headlines today:
- NSW suffers historic ‘once every month or so’ flooding
- NSW residents facing fourth once-in-a-hundred-year event since last January
New content today: