SYDNEY: Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said on Tuesday (May 27) flooding in the southeast posed “massive challenges” and the recovery would take several months.
Incessant rain over three days triggered major flooding in several rural towns in the Hunter and Mid North Coast regions of New South Wales, Australia’s most populous state, as fast-rising rivers cut off more than 50,000 people last week.
“There are still massive challenges … this is not something that will go away in a matter of days or weeks or even months,” Albanese told reporters from the flood-hit town of Taree, more than 300km north of Sydney.
“This will take some time, the recovery, but Australians are resilient.”
Taree received just over 600mm of rain over four days from May 20, roughly half its annual average, official data showed.
Australia has been hit with increasing extreme weather events that some experts say are the result of climate change.
Following droughts and devastating bushfires at the end of the last decade, frequent floods have wreaked havoc since early 2021.
