Latest news with #rescueCrews
Free Malaysia Today
22-05-2025
- Climate
- Free Malaysia Today
Flash floods cut off inland Australian towns, residents flee to rooftops
Some residents were trapped on roofs in the towns of Taree and Glenthorne, with emergency crews struggling overnight to access the area. (AP pic) SYDNEY : Heavy rain in Australia's southeast triggered flash flooding and cut off entire towns today, stranding some residents on the roofs of their homes, as authorities issued snap evacuation orders with rivers staying above danger levels. Rural towns in the Hunter and Mid North Coast regions of New South Wales, Australia's most populous state, were the worst hit from the downpour, with some areas receiving more than four months worth of rain over the past 24 hours. 'We have seen an enormous amount of rainfall,' New South Wales emergency services minister Jihad Dib told reporters. 'We've got a situation here where the rain really has been falling quite heavily and quite hard, and it hasn't been moving away. Part of that is because the ground is saturated and another part is also because the rivers are swollen.' In its latest update, Australia's bureau of meteorology said some areas could receive up to 300mm of rain over the next 24 hours, three times the mean total for May. Images shared on social media showed some residents sitting inside their homes ankle-deep in water waiting for rescue crews. In the towns of Taree and Glenthorne, which sit along the Manning River more than 300km north of Sydney, some residents were trapped on verandas and roofs with emergency crews struggling overnight to access the area by boat or air, authorities said. 'We didn't expect this amount of water,' Glenthorne resident Jordan Halloran told ABC News. 'Our neighbours will have to go onto the roof next and if we're not rescued, I would say we will have to make our way to the roof as well.' New South emergency services commissioner Mike Wassing said emergency crews were giving top priority to rescuing vulnerable people and those who could not leave their homes. 'The current focus (will be on) people that are actually on roofs or in other cases might be on the second story of their home,' Wassing said.
Yahoo
17-05-2025
- Climate
- Yahoo
Kentucky tornadoes leave at least 9 dead as severe weather outbreak tears across Ohio Valley
LONDON, Ky. -- A tornado outbreak that swept through the Ohio Valley Friday night left at least 9 people dead and several more seriously injured in Kentucky as rescue crews were frantically searching damaged cities for other victims into Saturday morning. Some of the hardest hit towns by apparent large tornadoes on Friday night were the Somerset area and London, where city officials reported significant damage. "Multiple fatalities have been confirmed as a result of a tornado that pummeled Laurel County late Friday evening," Laurel County Fiscal Court posted on Facebook, citing the Laurel-Whitley County Emergency Management Office. "Destroyed homes and buildings are still being searched by emergency responders." The Laurel County Sheriff's Office says the tornado touched down just before midnight and tore through two neighborhoods and the London Corbin Airport area, "causing mass casualties in its path." So far it says nine people have died in the county and "numerous severe injuries occurred to others." Video from London shows extensive damage with multiple homes destroyed and vehicles barely recognizable as debris littered the neighborhood and lightning still flashed in the background. "(My daughter) got scared so we went to the hallway," a woman named Leslie who survived the storm with her family told emergency officials in the video. "And we were in there about two minutes and then my husband came running in and pretty much jumped on top of her because you could feel the air sucking in and it sounded like a train. And then we saw stuff falling and next thing you knew, most of the house was gone." After the tornado hit, they said they had to go looking for shoes and car keys to get out. Their car was damaged and covered in mud, but still started. "My family's OK, I don't know about everybody else," she said, adding she saw some of her neighbors had been injured. The office also reported multiple serious injuries in town as damage was found strewn around the London-Corbin Airport, Jackson Wilderness Road Park and Oaks of London. subdivisions. This is a breaking news situation. Check back frequently for additional article source: Kentucky tornadoes leave at least 9 dead as severe weather outbreak tears across Ohio Valley
