Maribyrnong, a suburb of Victoria’s capital, Melbourne, was flooded Friday morning, authorities said. Victoria’s Prime Minister Daniel Andrews told ABC Radio his government was planning to open a corona quarantine center as an emergency shelter.
“This was a very, very significant flood and it’s far from over,” Andrews said. The water continues to rise “and more and more houses are under water, more and more communities are cut off from the outside world”. The north of the island of Tasmania, near Victoria, was also preparing for flooding. “The flooding is life-threatening,” the Tasmanian Emergency Response Service warned.
In the most populous state of New South Wales, an evacuation center was set up on Thursday evening after heavy rains in Forbes, an inland city about a five-hour drive east of the metropolis of Sydney. The peak of the floods was expected in Forbes on Friday.
Flooding has been a regular occurrence on Australia’s east coast for the past two years. In March, floods caused extensive damage in parts of the states of Queensland and New South Wales. More than 20 people died. In July, an evacuation order was issued for tens of thousands of Sydney residents due to flooding that left several suburbs of Australia’s largest city inundated.
(SDA)