After record-setting floods, Australian towns brace for more rains

Australia has been battered by record-setting floods in the past week and the authorities on Friday (March 4) issued a warning over more rains over the weekend in several flooded regions in the country's east. 

More rains mean the relief efforts will get hampered as rescuers and defence personnel try to reach the worst-hit towns cut off by days of downpours. 

Flood evacuation warnings were revised down for some parts in Sydney, Australia's largest city, but the Bureau of Meteorology (BoM) said a new weather system could bring another round of heavy rains from Sunday (March 6).

As per the latest reports, 13 people have been killed since the deluge began and several are still missing. 

One of the locals was quoted by Reuters as saying: "The last three months we've just reached absorption point on the water, on the land. So it can't take anymore water. That's one of the biggest problems we have at the moment. Just a very wet summer." 

Australia's emergency services Thursday ordered 200,000 people to flee from the path of a wild storm that dumped more than a year's worth of rainfall over a week. 

The rainfall in several places in southern Queensland and northern New South Wales brought widespread destruction, leaving thousands of people displaced and sweeping away property, livestock and roads. 

(With inputs from agencies)