Thousands evacuate as Sydney faces huge floods for 4th time in a year and a half

Sydney — More than 30,000 residents of Sydney and its surrounds were told to evacuate or prepare to abandon their homes Monday as Australia's largest city faces its fourth, and possibly worst round of flooding in less than a year and a half. Days of torrential rain caused dams to overflow and waterways to break their banks, bringing a new flood emergency to parts of the city of 5 million people.   "The latest information we have is that there's a very good chance that the flooding will be worse than any of the other three floods that those areas had in the last 18 months," Emergency Management Minister Murray Watt said.   The current flooding might affect areas that were spared during the previous floods in March last year, March this year and April, Watt added.

New South Wales state Premier Dominic Perrottet said 32,000 people were impacted by evacuation orders and warnings.