UPDATE 1-Thousands more evacuate in Sydney even though heavy rains ease

(Adds quote from flood-hit resident, Glencore comment on floodimpact)

By Renju Jose

SYDNEY, July 6 (Reuters) - A wild storm system that haspounded parts of Sydney with torrential rain for four days hasmoved away from the city, satellite images showed on Wednesday,although rivers remained above danger levels, forcing moreevacuations.

In Australia's third major flooding episode this year, morethan 85,000 people in New South Wales, most in Sydney's westernsuburbs, have been asked to either evacuate or warned they mightreceive evacuation orders, up from Tuesday's 50,000, authoritiessaid.

"This still remains a dangerous situation and we need torespond appropriately," Prime Minister Anthony Albanese toldreporters, announcing a one-off emergency cash payment ofA$1,000 ($680) for flood-hit residents during a visit to theSydney suburb of Windsor - suffering its third major deluge thisyear.

Yet frustration with the government's response was evidentas Albanese visited a volunteer emergency relief shelter to meetaffected people.

"Everyone is talking about fixing the same problem ...nothing has happened," television channels showed a residenttelling Albanese. "The locals are always prepared, thegovernment is not."

Australia's east coast weather has been dominated by the LaNina phenomenon, typically associated with greater rainfall, fortwo years in a row. La Nina ended in June, but there is a 50-50chance it may return later this year, according to the Bureau ofMeteorology (BoM).

The intense low-pressure system off Australia's east coastmoved to the mid-north coast of New South Wales stretchingacross 300 kilometres (186 miles), with the weather bureaupredicting rainfall in excess of 200 millimetres (8 inches) insome places there over six hours.

Torrential rains since Saturday continue to dump waters intoriver catchments around Sydney, already near full capacitybefore the latest deluge, as authorities warned the floodscrisis could extend until early next week.

Miner Glencore, the top coal producer in Australia,said its operations in the Hunter region in New South Wales hadfaced some "short-term impacts due to the current wet weather"but did not provide any specific details.

A Port of Newcastle spokesperson said there had beenintermittent disruption since Monday but operations wereexpected to return to normal around midday on Wednesday.

Social media footage showed residents using boats totransport fuel and essential supplies to homes cut off byfloods. Many were seen piling up sandbags to protect homes andbusinesses, while emergency crews rescued stranded farm animals.

Some regions in New South Wales have been hit with up to 700mm (28 inches) of rainfall since Saturday - in itself alreadymore than the annual average - but conditions have begun to easein Sydney.

"We're looking at some dry conditions (in Sydney) tomorrowand then Friday, some slight showers returning on the weekendbut nothing quite as heavy as what we have seen," BoMmeteorologist Jonathan How told Australian Broadcasting Corp.

($1 = 1.4710 Australian dollars)

(Reporting by Renju Jose in Sydney and Sonali Paul inMelbourne; Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan and Kenneth Maxwell)

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