Hundreds of stranded people in Australia’s southeast region were rescued by helicopters and boats on Tuesday after rivers rose rapidly, inundating houses and cutting off entire towns.
One person died after being pulled from a flooded vehicle, and property damage was “very significant” in some hard-hit areas, the city’s fire chief said.
Torrential rains and back-to-back typhoons have ripped through the country in the past two weeks, turning a once picturesque river into a sea of murky brown, killing dozens and setting off deadly landslides.
“We had to splash water on our hair because our hair was catching on fire,” one evacuee said of the harrowing escape from the Creek Fire. The governor declared an emergency.
