MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Floods leave at least 20 dead in Sydney

Australia needs to review its situation through the lens of climate change

Thousands of Sydney residents have been told by Tuesday to evacuate their homes after the death toll from floods reached 20 along Australia's east coast, it was reported.

Australia's national weather bureau warned of “a tough 48 hours ahead” for the Sydney area after intense rainfalls have hit it steadily for about a week. The Manly Dam, in the city's north, began to spill Tuesday, with 2,000 residents in low-lying areas around Manly Dam on Sydney's Northern Beaches have been warned to prepare to evacuate, while in the riverside suburb of Georges Hall vehicles were semi-submerged and police had to rescue people stranded in their cars by rising floodwaters. New South Wales Premier Dominic Perrottet said more warnings are expected to be issued.

Emergency services have been pushed to their limits as the torrential rain and intense storms continued into a second week, with flood warnings for the entire 2,000-kilometre (1,250-mile) coastline of New South Wales.

“It's very much the watery equivalent of the 'Black Summer' bushfires,” emergency services spokesperson Phil Campbell told AFP. He likened the current crisis to devastating bushfires which ravaged Australia's east for months in late 2019 and early 2020 “in terms of dislocation with roads closed, infrastructure damaged, power outages...”

The number of calls for help is expected to rise given the weather forecast. There are 800 people in emergency accommodation in the state's Northern Rivers region alone. According to emergency services, almost half of the 5,000 flood-ravaged homes inspected in the region in the wake of the disaster are uninhabitable.

Many local residents feared they would have no way to rebuild their homes since they do not have flood insurance. Australia has been through droughts, bushfires, and other catastrophes along the Great Barrier Reef. Floods are becoming increasingly common and intense as global weather patterns change.