500,000 people on flood alert as rain lashes Sydney

By RICK RYCROFT and ROD McGUIRK
Associated Press

SYDNEY (AP) — Around 500,000 people in Sydney and its surrounding areas have been told to evacuate or prepare to flee floodwaters as torrential rain lashes an extraordinarily long stretch of the Australian east coast. Rivers were rising in Australia’s most populous city, home to 5 million, with New South Wales’ State Emergency Services Minister Steph Cooke warning Thursday of “treacherous weather conditions” over the next 24 hours. Australia’s Bureau of Meteorology warned of life-threatening flash flooding and damaging winds. Major flooding was expected along several rivers in and around Sydney. Dozens of suburbs were on high alert. Flood waters were also rising in Brisbane, Australia’s third most populous city 450 miles north of Sydney, as severe thunderstorms struck.