Highlights
- This year is the wettest year as floods have broken the 1950s’ rainfall record.
- As per the reports, more than 500 houses have been inundated.
- There has been a power cut in more than 3000 houses
- Many states have ordered evacuations as a preventive measure to save lives.
Climate change is sometimes misunderstood as being about changes in the weather. In reality, it is about changes in our very way of life – Paul Polman
The above saying clearly demonstrates, how climate change could halt and affect generally each and everyone’s course of life, whether they are movie stars, government officials, rich, or poor people.
Now, the intensified effect of climate change and its sign clearly could be seen in form of long-term rainfall that is causing lots of problems for every person residing in Sydney, Australia.
This year, Australia witnessed some of the wettest years after 164 years, resulting in 2,213mm of rainfall, surpassing the past record of 2,194mm that occurred in 1950, as per the official data.
According to the Bureau of Meteorology data, rainfall brought more than 55mm of rainfall within 5 hours from 9 am.
Probable causes for Rainfall
Climatologists and weather experts are of the view, that this heavy downpour is due to the La Nina phenomenon.
La Nina is also known as the “Cold event”, wherein water temperature in the eastern pacific ocean gets colder than normal, leading to strong pressure over the eastern equatorial pacific.
Contrary to this, there is the presence of low pressure in the Western Pacific and Off Asia. This causes drought in Ecuador and Peru, Heavy Floods in Australia.
This phenomenon causes the temperature of the western Pacific to warm, which leads to better conditions for rain and cloud over eastern Australia.
Present situation
in preventive measures, in order to save the lives of people, authorities in three states have ordered evacuate people from inundated areas.
According to the latest report, more than 500 houses have been flooded, one person is missing and another has died.
Some of the major and important cities of Australia, such as Victoria – the second most populous state – have been hit hard badly by this La Nina phenomenon.
In the present scenario, as far as eyes go, floods have inundated the roads, led to disruption in the power supply of more than 3,000 houses and businesses, and forced school and college closures.
In another region, called New South Wales, more than 600 people have been told to evacuate from the town of Forbes.
Casualties
As flooding has intensified, many cities have asked for evacuation.
The recent death of a person due to flooding brings the death toll to 2 this week. In New South Wales, a 46-year-old man was found dead, in a submerged vehicle.
Authorities’ response and Views
Ever since floods started to spread in major cities, authorities had come into full swing and done everything that seemed as necessary measures.
According to Steph Cooke, an emergency service minister, “our dams are full and catchments are saturated and rivers are already swollen. Thus, any additional precipitation, nevertheless how minor it is, will exacerbate the situation.” The state government of New South Wales has made a commitment to raise the height of the wall of Warragamba Dam (Sydney) – this dam, supplies the city’s 80% water – to prevent floods in the future.