Half Of New South Wales Flooded Or Threatened By Flooding; Rains Head For Victoria

Hundreds of residents are being forced from their homes in New South Wales as floodwaters threaten as much as half of Australia’s most populous state and heavy rainfall spreads to neighboring Victoria.

About 50 percent of NSW, home to the nation’s biggest city Sydney, is flooded or under threat after 100 millimeters (3.9 inches) of rain fell in a 24-hour period in some areas, Julie Evans, a meteorologist at the Bureau of Meteorology, said by telephone today.

“We’ve broken a few records already and we expect to break some more,” Evans said today. “This event hasn’t finished. We’re expecting widespread falls of 50 to 100 millimeters and some over 100 millimeters today in parts of” the state’s southeast.

Areas of Cooma, a town of about 6,500 people 390 kilometers (240 miles) south of Sydney, and parts of Goulburn, with a population of more than 20,000, are being evacuated, the State Emergency Service said. Floodwaters in northern New South Wales last month damaged homes, ruined cotton crops and caused cattle sales to be canceled, one year after natural disasters cost the Australian economy A$9 billion ($9.7 billion).

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http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-03-01/australia-towns-evacuated-as-floods-threaten.html