Heavy rains in Australia’s east spark flash flooding, rescues

Heavy rain brought flash flooding to Australia’s largest city, Sydney, on Saturday, prompting rescues and evacuation orders for several low-lying suburbs.
Emergency authorities said they carried out 13 rescues and received 297 calls for assistance from residents in Sydney, the capital of New South Wales state, in the 24 hours to 5 a.m. local time, because of floods sparked by the heavy rain.
Ten emergency evacuation orders were in place for suburbs in the city’s northwest, the New South Wales State Emergency Service (SES) said in a statement on Saturday morning.
The nation’s weather forecaster warned that major flooding could occur in the northwest of Sydney, a city of about 5 million, later on Saturday.