Emergency companies in Australia’s Queensland state evacuated residents to increased floor on Saturday, as record-breaking floods sparked by heavy rain lashed the area’s northwest.

Fifty three residents of the remoted Gulf Country city of Burketown, about 2,115 km (1,314 miles) northwest of state capital Brisbane, had been evacuated since heavy rain triggered floods earlier this week, police mentioned Saturday.

Around 100 residents remained within the city, with police urging a full evacuation on Saturday, because the nation’s climate forecaster predicted river ranges within the space to peak on Sunday.

“We are confident we can move the remaining people if we have to,” Superintendent Tom Armitt instructed the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC), including that floodwaters had been nonetheless rising within the distant space.

Also learn: Australian town witnesses rare ‘fish rains’, say reports

The emergency comes after frequent flooding in Australia’s east during the last two years as a result of a multi-year La Nina climate occasion, together with “once in a century” floods that hit distant areas within the neighbouring Northern Territory, in January.

At Burketown, the flood topped the March 2011 document of 6.87 metres after as much as 293 mm of rain fell on Thursday and Friday, the Bureau of Meteorology beforehand mentioned.

Police had been co-ordinating the evacuation through helicopter to the mining city of Mount Isa, about 425 km (264 miles) south.

At Gregory, a small city about 120 km (75 miles) south of Burketown, the influence of flooding was not but clear as contacting the neighborhood remained tough, the ABC reported.

Flood alerts had been present on Saturday for big swaths of Queensland, and there have been additionally warnings for extreme storms, heavy rainfall, and potential flash flooding in lots of components, together with the Gulf Country.