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The Guardian - AU
The Guardian - AU
National
Caitlin Cassidy

‘Heartbreaking’: Australia’s east coast reels from worst floods in living memory

Residents evacuate as flooding occurs in the regional city of Lismore, north-eastern New South Wales, Australia
Lismore residents in northern NSW evacuate from the worst floods in the regional city’s history. Photograph: Jason O’Brien/AAP

When Jenni Metcalfe returned to her Brisbane home to survey the damage as the nearby river peaked, water had already risen a metre up the back wall. There was nothing she could do. “I sat in the gutter and watched it and cried,” she said.

The east coast of Australia has been battered by more than a week of torrential rain, as communities begin to survey the wreckage of fatal flash flooding that has left townships looking like war zones.

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