Floodwaters continue to ebb in Sydney

SYDNEY — Floodwaters inundated or were threatening the homes of 85,000 people around Sydney on Wednesday as rivers started to recede and the heavy rains tracked north of Australia’s largest city.

While rain was easing across Sydney, several waterways including the Hawkesbury-Nepean rivers system on Sydney’s northern and western fringes remained at major flood levels, Emergency Services Minister Steph Cooke said. Emergency responders knocked on doors overnight in the towns of Singleton and Muswellbrook, in the Hunter Valley north of Sydney, to order residents to evacuate, she said.

On the fifth day of the flood emergency, New South Wales state Premier Dominic Perrottet warned that homes that remained dry during previous floods could be inundated this week.

(AP/AAP Image/Bianca de Marchi) Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese (center right) and New South Wales Premier Dominic Perrottet (center left) meet flood affected locals Wednesday in Windsor on the outskirts of Sydney, Australia.