Flash floods cut off inland Australian towns, residents flee to rooftops

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By Renju Jose

SYDNEY (Reuters) -Heavy rain in Australia’s southeast triggered flash flooding and cut off entire towns on Wednesday, stranding some residents on the roofs of their homes, as authorities issued snap evacuation orders with rivers staying above danger levels.

Rural towns in the Hunter and Mid North Coast regions of New South Wales, Australia’s most populous state, were the worst hit from the downpour, with some areas receiving more than four months worth of rain over the past 24 hours.

“We have seen an enormous amount of rainfall,” New South Wales Emergency Services Minister Jihad Dib told reporters.

“We’ve got a situation here where the rain really has been falling quite heavily and quite hard, and it hasn’t been moving away. Part of that is because the ground is saturated and another part is also because the rivers are swollen.”

In its latest update, Australia’s Bureau of Meteorology said some areas could receive up to 300 mm (12 inches) of rain over the next 24 hours, three times the mean total for May.

Images shared on social media showed some residents sitting inside their homes ankle-deep in water waiting for rescue crews.

In the towns of Taree and Glenthorne, which sit along the Manning River more than 300 km (186 miles) north of Sydney, some residents were trapped on verandas and roofs with emergency crews struggling overnight to access the area by boat or air, authorities said.

“We didn’t expect this amount of water,” Glenthorne resident Jordan Halloran told ABC News.

“Our neighbours will have to go onto the roof next and if we’re not rescued, I would say we will have to make our way to the roof as well.”

New South Emergency Services Commissioner Mike Wassing said emergency crews were giving top priority to rescuing vulnerable people and those who could not leave their homes.

“The current focus (will be on) people that are actually on roofs or in other cases might be on the second story of their home,” Wassing said.

(Reporting by Renju Jose in Sydney; Editing by Christian Schmollinger)