Hundreds of people have been rescued from floodwaters that have isolated dozens of towns in Australia’s most populous state New South Wales and forced thousands to evacuate their homes as record rain continues to inundate the country’s east coast. Around 18,000 people had been evacuated from flooding in New South Wales by Monday and emergency services feared up to 54,000 people could be displaced with rain forecast to continue until Wednesday. Prime Minister Scott Morrison told Parliament that 35 communities in northern New South Wales had been isolated and emergency services had conducted more than 700 flood rescues. A year ago, vast swathes of New South Wales had been charred by unprecedented wildfires following years of drought that gripped most of the state. Some of the same areas were now being by inundated by one-in-50-year and one-in-100-year rain events. New South Wales Premier Gladys Berejiklian said up to 38 parts of the state had been declared natural disaster areas. Thousands of people have been affected with 40 flood warnings and 20 evacuation orders along the state’s Mid North Coast, and in western Sydney. Houses had been submerged and destroyed while several communities had lost power. Heavy rain will remain a serious risk on Tuesday for the Mid North Coast, where communities are facing the worst flooding conditions since 1929. Communities along the Hawkesbury River were also bracing for the worst flooding in the area since 1961. Nepean River levels at Penrith on Sydney western outskirts had peaked late Sunday at a higher level than the 1961 record and the Hawkesbury River flood waters at Windsor, northwest of Sydney, were expected to peak late Monday around a 1988 record level. Subscribe to our YouTube channel: https://bit.ly/2TwO8Gm Bloomberg Quicktake brings you live global news and original shows spanning business, technology, politics and culture. Make sense of the stories changing your business and your world. To watch complete coverage on Bloomberg Quicktake 24/7, visit http://www.bloomberg.com/qt/live, or watch on Apple TV, Roku, Samsung Smart TV, Fire TV and Android TV on the Bloomberg app. Have a story to tell? Fill out this survey for a chance to have it featured on Bloomberg Quicktake: https://cor.us/surveys/27AF30 Connect with us on… YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/Bloomberg Breaking News on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/BloombergQuickTakeNews Twitter: https://twitter.com/quicktake Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/quicktake Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/quicktake