Photo Boston.com
A week of record breaking rain and floods
has killed at least two people with another one missing with massive damage to
crops and infrastructure across Western Australia.
Western Australia Premier announced that
the heavy rain has affected huge areas of the state, including Swan Valley,
where it has had a dramatic impact on grape growers, as well as parts of the
Kimberley, the Pilbara, the Gascoyne, Mid-West areas and the south coastal
areas.
The flooding has been described as some of
the worst in decades and is estimated to have caused hundreds of millions of
dollars in damage with roads, bridges and farms affected.
On a visit to affected areas in the Swan
Valley, WA Premier Colin Barnet said that “an enormous volume of water has
fallen and is probably the biggest flood we have had in 20 years.”
“Many of the grape producers here have lost
a significant amount of their grape crop, damage to their vines and some have
lost virtually everything.”
There are still many areas with current
flood warnings in place. WA Department of Fire and Emergency Services warned
earlier today that flooding was likely in the Swan and Murray Catchments in
Perth Metropolitan area, reported Floodlist .com.
Record Rainfall
The period between 09 to 10 February saw
some of the heaviest rainfall. On 10 February, Kalgoorlie recorded 37mm of rain
in just 1 hour. In a 24 hour period to 10 February, Yangedine recorded 75 mm.
During the same period, Perth recorded 114 mm of rain, making it the second
wettest day on record. The highest remains 9 February 1992 when 120.6 mm of
rain fell.
According to the Bureau of Meteorology
(BoM), Perth has seen 165.2 mm of rain so far this year and 134.8 mm in
February alone. This summer has been the wettest on record, with a total of
190.4mm, beating the previous record of 180.4mm in 1955.
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