Sydney Rain Update: Flood Clean-up Starts as Heavy Rainfall Moves out to Sea

As the rainfall across the flood-ridden Sydney finally receded on Thursday, almost 30,000 residents in its western suburbs were permitted to return to their homes to begin the clean-ups.

Whilst this clean-up in the capital city, the State Emergency Service workers are busy working in the more northerly parts of the state of New South Wales handling the destruction caused by the past week’s wild weather.

State Emergency Service deputy state duty commander Ashley Sullivan told that emergency workers had handled nearly 7,000 requests for assistance since the start of the floods, with 370 rescues during the past 24 hours.

This is the fourth flood to hit the Greater Sydney Region within the past 18 months.

On 3 July, after prolonged rainfall in Sydney, the Hawkesbury River at Windsor peaked at 14 meters, the highest in decades. Hundreds of homes were swamped in and around Australia’s largest city in a flood emergency that was impacting 50,000 people, more than 150 evacuation orders and warnings were given in the area in addition to over 140 rescues and 19,000 homes losing power. Warragamba dam also had a major spillage with 515 gigalitres of water flowing down its walls.

Regions, such as Lansvale and Camden in Western Sydney experienced their worst flooding disasters in four decades, with floodwaters in Windsor reaching their highest point since 1978.

On 5 July, as the low moved north, residents in Broke, as well as 6000 other people in the Hunter Region, were ordered to evacuate. Wollombi, Bulga, and Broke were cut off and isolated by the floodwaters.

It is after Thursday that the rain started receding and the situation came under control with people being sent back to their homes and the federal government along with Prime Minister Anthony Albanese announcing that the residents in 23 flood-affected areas in New South Wales would be entitled to a payment of A$1,000 for each eligible adult and A$400 for every child.

The government is now working on the cleaning and filtering of raw water to keep it safe for use as the floods had swept a lot of leaves, dirt, and other debris into the water catchment area.