Record floods cut a destructive path through eastern Australia on Friday, caking houses in silt, washing out roads and separating 50,000 people from help.
Four bodies have been pulled from vast tides of floodwater engulfing parts of northern New South Wales, a fertile region of rivers and valleys some 400 kilometres (250 miles) up the coast from Sydney.
Salvage crews were preparing to embark on a major clean-up operation as waters started receding Friday morning, surveying the damage from half a year’s worth of rain dumped in just three days.
“Our CBD was inundated, so many businesses have had water through and it’s going to be a massive cleanup,” said Kinne Ring, mayor of the flood-stricken farming town of Kempsey, referring to its central business district.
“Houses have been inundated,” she told national broadcaster ABC.
“There’s water coming through the bottom of houses, it’s really awful to see and the water is going to take a bit of time to recede.”
State Emergency Service boss Dallas Burnes said more than 2,000 workers had been deployed to the disaster zone.
“A real focus for us at the moment will be resupplying the isolated communities,” he said, adding that 50,000 people were still stranded by the floods.
Burnes said rescue crews had plucked more than 600 people to safety since the floods started rising earlier this week.
Some people clambered atop cars, houses and highway bridges before helicopters winched them away.
The storms have dumped more than six months’ worth of rain over just three days, the government weather bureau has said, smashing flood-height records in some areas.
“We are seeing levels in local tributaries, creeks and rivers that we haven’t seen since 1920,” state premier Chris Minns told reporters on Thursday.
“Many people will have never seen this level of inundation or flooding in their communities.”
In the town of Taree, business owner Jeremy Thornton said the “gut-wrenching” flood was among the worst he had seen.
“It is pretty tough, we’ve had a few moments but you have to suck it up and push on,” he told AFP on Thursday.
“We are reliving it every second — hearing the rain, hearing the helicopters, hearing the siren.”
Locals spotted dead cows washing up on beaches after swollen rivers swept them from their pastures inland.
The government has declared a natural disaster, unlocking greater resources for affected areas.
From the arid outback to the tropical coast, swaths of Australia have recently been pummelled by wild weather.
The oceans surrounding Australia have been “abnormally warm” in recent months, according to Australia’s government weather bureau.
Warmer seas evaporate more moisture into the atmosphere, which can eventually lead to more intense rains.
Although difficult to link to specific disasters, climate change is already fuelling more extreme weather patterns, scientists warn.
Flood modelling expert Mahdi Sedighkia said this week’s emergency offered “compelling evidence” of how climate change could affect regional weather patterns.
