Some parts of New South Wales state experienced their wettest week on record, prompting the closure of a major coal-haulage railway and cuts to coal production. The floods destroyed crops and drowned cattle that farmers weren’t able to get to higher ground.
Hundreds of homes have been inundated with water and vast networks of road have been damaged, authorities said. Power outages have occurred throughout the region, where another 20,000 residents have been warned they could need to move to safety.
Roads were under around two meters (or more than 6 ½ feet) of water, said Oliver Sawaya, who fled his home in a dinghy with his 72-year-old father, Henry. The property in Pitt Town, about an hour’s drive from Sydney, is surrounded by creeks, which overflowed and cut off escape routes.
“You couldn’t see anything,” the 44-year-old lawyer said. “It looked as if you were in Sydney Harbour and you were on a boat.”
Australia had been braced for potential flooding after the weather pattern ahead of its summer season changed to La Niña, characterized by cooler-than-normal waters in tropical Pacific Ocean regions that drive increased rainfall, from the El Niño event that typically brings dry spells and contributed to the bush fires that ravaged the country’s eastern states a year ago.
Still, authorities said the scale of the flooding was extreme. The New South Wales State Emergency Service said a one-in-100-year flood was occurring in parts of the state, home to Sydney. A 100-year flood has a 1% chance of occurring in any given year.
Flooding that began on the New South Wales coast had by Tuesday spread to the state’s west, northeastern South Australia and southwestern Queensland. The cities of Brisbane and the Gold Coast, in Queensland state, also faced flash flooding.
The rainfall was so heavy that the main Warragamba Dam supplying Sydney overflowed. As much as 500 gigaliters of water, or about 132 billion gallons, has been spilling from the dam daily—around the same volume of water as in Sydney Harbour—with authorities expecting it to overflow for at least a week more.
“There will be many difficult months ahead as the cleanup and recovery from this natural disaster gets under way,” said Prime Minister Scott Morrison.
Up to 1,000 Australian Defence Force personnel could be deployed to help clean up, he said.
The floods risk damping Australia’s economic recovery in the short term by upending supply chains and hurting consumer confidence. They add to distress in communities that have dealt with wildfires, pandemic restrictions and now flood damage in little more than a year.
Australia’s economy had been bouncing back quickly from the pandemic, expanding at its fastest pace in 60 years in the second half of 2020, in large part due to higher household spending, as consumers tapped into savings built up early in the health crisis. Unemployment fell to 5.8% last month from 6.3% in January.
Still, economists note that output lost to natural disasters is often recovered later as homes are rebuilt and governments invest to repair roads, bridges and buildings.
Australia’s mining industry was affected, with floodwaters closing a key railroad that moves coal from inland mines to port for export to Japan, South Korea and elsewhere in Asia. Some coal miners reduced output.
Thermal-coal prices jumped to a two-year high this week as the floods worsened. Traders were already concerned about supplies due to existing damage to some coal-export infrastructure following storms last year.
“When it’s safe to do so, we will begin the process of reopening the tracks by undertaking a full assessment of rail operations,” the Australian Rail Track Corp. said.
A spokesman for Glencore PLC said it had cut coal production at some mines as a precaution.
NSW Farmers, a lobby group for the farming sector in New South Wales, said it expects significant damage to crops, pastures, infrastructure and oyster leases, as well as material livestock losses.
It estimated damages would run into the hundreds of millions of dollars, with many farms not insured for flood damage.
Exports of high-quality beef, typically destined for places including the U.S., Japan and South Korea, will be among the hardest hit. Australia’s cattle herd was already at low levels.
“It did unfold quite quickly, so not everyone was able to move their stock to higher ground,” said Pete Arkle, chief executive of NSW Farmers.
A snapshot of Australian consumer confidence by ANZ-Roy Morgan, based on surveys taken March 20-21, pointed to sharp falls in sentiment in Sydney and Brisbane as flooding worsened. Craig James, chief economist at CommSec, a unit of Commonwealth Bank of Australia, said the impact on consumer confidence could last several weeks.