Floods in Australia inundate roads and force thousands from their homes

Weather of Arabia - A man was killed and thousands of people were asked to evacuate their homes today, Monday, amid heavy rain and major floods in Sydney, Australia's largest city, as overflowing rivers flooded vast areas of land, while large amounts of water flowed from the Warragamba Dam on Sunday. It is a huge dam located in the western suburbs of Sydney and is the source of most of the city's drinking water.

Television images showed roads that had disappeared under water, homes and facilities were submerged, and emergency services worked to rescue several people who were trapped inside their cars, and about 32,000 people received warnings and orders to evacuate their homes in New South Wales.

In some areas, waters may exceed levels reached during the deadly flood disasters that hit Australia's east coast in the past two years, said Ashley Sullivan, a state emergency services official.

"We are now facing risks on multiple fronts - flash floods, river flooding and coastal erosion," Stephanie Cook, New South Wales Minister of Emergency Services, said at a media briefing.

Its warning came as the Met Office said up to 350 mm of rain hit certain areas, threatening flooding along the Nepean River.

It added that 83 flood rescue operations were carried out by emergency services in the past 24 hours alone.

"This unfortunately shows that people are not necessarily abiding by the advice that we continue to give several times a day regarding this flood event," Ms Cook said.

A man has died after falling from a kayak on the Parramatta River in western Sydney. Emergency officials tried to rescue the man after he was seen struggling in the water, but he died at the scene.

Australia is affected by severe forms of climate change, with devastating droughts and wildfires regularly, as well as frequent and increasingly intense floods, exacerbated by climate change and La Niña weather.

Australia was hit by major floods last March, killing 20 people, many of them in New South Wales.

La Niña is said to occur when strong winds blow over the warm surface waters of the Pacific Ocean and move them away from South America and toward Indonesia, bringing cooler waters to the surface.

Australia is affected by La Niña, which increases the likelihood of rain and cyclones, and records cooler temperatures during the day.