SYDNEY (AP) – Heavy rains were predicted to diminish along Australia’s east coast, but floodwaters will linger for days in the state of New South Wales, where 15,000 people were anxiously awaiting possible orders to evacuate on Tuesday.
About 18,000 residents of Australia’s most populous state have fled their homes since last week, with warnings that the cleanup could last until April.
New South Wales Prime Minister Gladys Berejiklian said on Tuesday that different weather fronts continued to affect large areas of the state.
In some parts of the state, two-thirds of their annual rainfall fell in less than a week.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison said the rain emergency was expected to subside by late Wednesday, but that the “floodwaters will continue for some time”.
“I have been told that the rain and flood situation remains dynamic and extraordinarily complex,” said Morrison.
The sky was expected to clear up over parts of Sydney and the coast to the north by late Tuesday.
“It’s almost impossible to believe, but we’ll see blue skies and sunshine this afternoon in western Sydney and on the Mid North Coast,” said government meteorologist Agata Imielska.
“It is very important to remember that although the blue sky and sunshine return, the flooding will continue and the flood risk will continue,” added Imielska.
Morrison said the New South Wales government had already asked 1,000 defense personnel to help clean up after the floods.
The flood rain had spread along the coast of New South Wales across the Queensland state line in the north and almost to the Victoria border in the south.