Sydney is an important Australian city located on the south east coast.
The city is located along a river and is a port city, so floods, though rare, are not unknown.
The last flooding of Sydney was in March 2022.
On June 27th, rains started in Sydney. For over a week now, Sydney has been flooded.
About 50,000 people were evacuated (taken to a safe place) and are just starting to return to their homes to assess the damage and start rebuilding.
The flood warning, however, is not over. The Met department of Australia continues to maintain a flood warning over the region.
This is the third flooding event within 18 months in Sydney.
Why does this happen?
The Australian Met Bureau tries to explain the weather phenomenon that leads to these floods.
These are the factors we identified for the Sydney floods:
A. High levels of rainfall
B. Weather phenomena
C. The dam had to release water
D. The flood plains were cleared for building homes. So, when the floodplains flooded, more people were affected.
E. Some people think that this is a function of La Nina.
Citizens are demanding that the walls of the Warragamba Dam should be raised to prevent a flood like situation in the future.
What happens now?
After a flood situation gets better and the water recedes (returns to normal level), people come back to their house.
They then need to file insurance claims for the damage caused.
They also need to figure out what is beyond repair and what can be salvaged and dried.
Then, people need to rebuild whatever cannot be salvaged.
