In northwest Melbourne, 70 people were forced to leave their homes due to the flooding, while authorities in Benalla and Wedderburn in Victoria advised hundreds of people to evacuate.
In Victoria, five hundred homes were submerged, and another five hundred were cut off from the outside world, said Daniel Andrews, state premier, adding that based on weather forecasts, the weather would be rainy for weeks to come. More floods are expected.
Andrews also reported that 4,700 households were without electricity. According to the state rescue service report, more than a hundred people have been rescued from the flooded areas in the past 48 hours.
The wettest year
The flooding of the Lachlan River in New South Wales has also trapped hundreds of people in Forbes. And in Tasmania, people living on the northern coast had to move to higher ground due to rising rivers.
Already in September, the Bureau of Meteorology indicated that a weather phenomenon in La Nina is developing in the Pacific Ocean, which is associated with above-average rainfall in the eastern part of Australia. La Nina is caused by the strengthening of tropical trade winds, which alter ocean surface currents and bring cooler waters to the surface.
In Sydney last week, rain broke the record of 1950, and 2022 became the wettest year on record for Australia’s largest city.
