By Renju Jose

SYDNEY, (Reuters) – Heavy rains flooded Australia’s east coast Wednesday. Tens of thousands fled homes as floodwaters burst rivers banks and pushed over levees.

Many towns of northern New South Wales, already suffering from floods that erupted over a month back were hit by an extremely low-pressure storm overnight. Officials claimed that in some areas, it took less than six hours to receive a month’s worth rain.

Australia’s east coast summer was dominated by La Nina, a pattern that is associated with more rainfall. The La Nina has also been associated for two years with the capacity of rivers after torrential rains. Sydney already has 537mm (21.1 inches), this month, making it the wettest March ever.

“Unfortunately, overnight, our worst worries have been realized with significant heavy rain across already saturated landscapes,” Stephanie Cooke from New South Wales Emergency Services said at a press briefing.

Lismore in northern New South Wales was one of the hardest impacted cities by floods in March. Water levels in Wilsons River exceeded the 10.65m levee. Nearly 30,000 residents call Lismore home. They received approximately 400mm (16 inches) rain in the 24 hours leading up to Wednesday morning.

According to local media, there wasn’t an official alert that the levee was breached because sirens had malfunctioned.

Nine Network reported that Mayor Steve Krieg stated, “Everything in Lismore is falling apart at the moment…second time in a month,”

Weather bureau predicts “bands of very locally heavier rainfall” that will drop in a matter of hours Wednesday. These could potentially lead to dangerous flash floods, with as much as 200mm expected to batter many parts.

Kevin Cocciola from Lismore, who was a farmer and lost his Lismore city office during the March deluge, stated that he had never experienced consecutive major flooding events in “a matter three weeks”.

He said that he hoped it won’t rise as much as it did last week, but God only knows.”