Hundreds of people have been rescued during one-in-500-year flooding after parts of Australia’s east copped four months of rain in two days.

Flooded residents are warned to prepare for long periods of isolation while others are urged to evacuate.

Almost 300 flood rescues were carried out on Wednesday, including helicopters lifting stranded occupants off their roofs to safety in the Hunter and Mid North Coast regions of NSW.

More helicopters and crews are on their way to join the rescue efforts.

The state and federal governments have activated disaster support — including emergency accommodation — for 16 local government areas and the Insurance Council of Australia (ICA) has declared it a “significant event” and started collecting data for claims.

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Source: https://7news.com.au/news/residents-winched-to-safety-as-downpour-swells-flooding-in-nsw-c-18767611

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Entire towns were cut off as rivers rose rapidly on Monday, submerging houses, roads, bridges and farms.

Emergency crews deployed more than a dozen helicopters to rescue people trapped on rooftops in the worst-hit towns in New South Wales (NSW), in what officials described as the biggest flood rescue operation in the state’s history.

More than 200 flood rescue operations were conducted in NSW in the 24 hours to Tuesday morning, after heavy rain smashed parts of southwest NSW and northeast Victoria over the weekend.

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Source: https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/newslondon/australia-floods-hundreds-rescued-by-helicopter-in-new-south-wales-after-extreme-rainfall/ar-AA147DSn

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New South Wales Rural Fire Service‘s deputy commissioner Rob Rogers said in a video posted Twitter that while there is still some fire activity in the southern part of the state, emergency workers can now focus on “helping people rebuild.”

“After what’s been a truly devastating fire season for both firefighters and residents, who’ve suffered so much this season, all fires are now contained in New South Wales,” Rogers said.

AUSTRALIA RAIN MAY PUT OUT REMAINING WILDFIRES IN NEW SOUTH WALES BY END OF WEEK AFTER RECENT DELUGE

Rogers said all fires are contained, meaning that a perimeter has been established around the blazes to prevent additional spread.

NSW RFS@NSWRFS

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The Australian Defense Force is sending ships to the Victoria town of Mallacoota on a two-week supply mission and using helicopters to bring in more firefighters since roads were inaccessible, according to the Associated Press (AP).

On Tuesday, thousands of people from the town on Australia’s southeastern coast fled towards the water as a fire ripped through the area.

Photos of residents taking shelter on boats circulated on social media.

Nicole Asher@Nic_Asher

This is the situation in Mallacoota at the moment. A mother and her kids are sheltering in their boat on the water. People are reporting the sound of gas bottles exploding in town and quite a few homes have been burnt. @abcmelbourne #gippsnews #gippslandfires

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Seven people have died since Monday, with fires tearing through communities in New South Wales and Victoria states, according to the AP. The dead include a volunteer firefighter who was killed near the New South Wales-Victoria border when his truck was flipped over by what local authorities called a “fire tornado.”

In New South Wales, where Sydney is located, firefighters are battling more than 100 fires, according to the state’s Rural Fire Service.

Sydney’s famed New Year’s Eve fireworks went ahead despite the fires. A petition calling on the government to cancel the display and give the funds to firefighters and farmers instead got more than 280,000 signatures.

New South Wales’ Rural Fire Services Commissioner Shane Fitzsimmons said this wildfire season is the worst on record.

“We’ve seen extraordinary fire behavior,” he said Tuesday, according to the AP. “What we really need is meaningful rain, and we haven’t got anything in the forecast at the moment that says we’re going to get drought-breaking or fire-quenching rainfall.”

More than 900 homes have been destroyed in the state, according to New South Wales Rural Fire Service.

A fire tracker map maintained by researchers in Western Australia shows that they are also threatening areas around every major city in the country.

A map from researchers in Western Australia shows hundreds of wildfire hotspots across the nation as of Wednesday, Jan. 1, 2020.

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And although the weather cooled slightly in parts of Australia on Wednesday, authorities warned that, with several months of summer left, the worst is not yet over.

“We have three months of hot weather to come. We do have a dynamic and a dangerous fire situation across the state,” Victoria Emergency Commissioner Andrew Crisp said, according to the AP.

Australia experienced its hottest-ever drought conditions in 2019, and the country has experienced record-breaking heat over the past few weeks.

“When you have very hot, dry, windy conditions, if all of those things come together, a fire can get quickly out of control,” Lesley Hughes, with the environmental group Climate Council of Australia, tells TIME.

“As the climate is warming up, we’re getting more and more extremely hot days and currently, of course, Australia is in the grip of probably unprecedented heatwave conditions almost right across the continent.”

Despite the bushfire crisis, Australia’s Prime Minister Scott Morrison has argued that there is no direct link between Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions and the severity of the fires burning across the country. However, he acknowledged that climate change could be impacting bushfires. Australia is one of the highest per-capita emitters of carbon dioxide in the world, according to Climate Analytics, an advocacy group that tracks climate data.

On Wednesday, bushfires burned in all directions outside of Sydney, including a fire near the Blue Mountains which has already destroyed an area larger than the state of Rhode Island.

Wildfires burn outside Sydney Landgate’s –MyFireWatch

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“Severe” and “very high” fire danger alerts have been issued for parts of New South Wales in eastern Australia for New Years Day. New South Wales’ Bureau of Meteorology warned of strong winds.

Bureau of Meteorology, New South Wales@BOM_NSW

Urgent update for #NewYears revellers Strong #winds are making their way up the #NSW coast & are reaching #Sydney area. Winds are part of the forecast southerly change sweeping the coast & people on or around the harbour should take care http://ow.ly/5P9150xKsfM  @nswpolice #SydNYE

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People in Sydney posted photos this week of haze enveloping the city. Haze from the fires was impacting places as far away as New Zealand, according to Australia’s Bureau of Meteorology.

 

Joe O’Brien@JoeABCNews

2019 .. the year Sydney lost its blue December sky in an ominous haze. Australia-wide; 9 people dead, 1000 homes lost, 4m hectares burnt out. #AustraliaBushfires

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Several major wildfires burning across Southern Australia on Wednesday. Thousands of lightning strikes earlier this week sparked dozens of fires, reports the Adelaide Advertiser.

Wildfires burn outside Adelaide –Landgate’s MyFireWatch

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Several wildfires are also burning in the state of Victoria, where Melbourne, Australia’s second-biggest city, is located.

Wildfires burn in the state of Victoria, where Melbourne is located –Landgate’s MyFireWatch

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State authorities issued an emergency warning on Wednesday urging some residents of Sunbury, a town about 25 miles northwest of Melbourne, to leave as firefighters battled a blaze.

The Premier of Victoria posted a New Years’ message on Twitter wishing safety to those fighting the fires.

Dan Andrews@DanielAndrewsMP

Usually, I’d just be wishing you all a happy New Year – but it’s a tough start to 2020 for lots of Victorians.

So to everyone affected by the bushfires, and to our fireys, emergency workers and volunteers putting their lives on the line: stay safe.

And thank you.

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The climate scientist Hughes tells TIME that the widespread wildfire crisis has made climate change a reality for many Australians.

“Certainly this summer, these conditions, the ongoing drought, the heatwave, and the fires, are really bringing home to people that climate change is not some future hypothetical issue,” she says.

Peter Dunn, a former commissioner for the Australian Capital Territory Emergency Services Authority and a member of advocacy group Emergency Leaders for Climate Action tells TIME that the wildfire crisis has “fundamentally shifted” the climate debate in Australia. He and other climate change activists believe Morrison’s position on the country’s greenhouse gas emissions is hindering the government’s ability to tackle the wildfire crisis.

“By not accepting the link between climate change and bushfires as fully as [the government] should, we’re not getting sufficiently prepared to cope with the problem,” Hughes says.

“It’s really, really frustrating, the ongoing intransigence of this federal Conservative government.”

She’s not the only Australian upset over government inaction. Protests broke out at Morrison’s office in December, with demonstrators demanding action on climate change, while others criticized Morrison for taking a vacation to Hawaii during the fire crisis. The Prime Minister cut short his family holiday and apologized for the timing of his trip.

“We’ve had no leadership from the government whatsoever. They’ve been missing in action,” Dunn says.

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Source: https://time.com/5753584/bushfires-australia-catastrophic-fire-alert/

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At least eight people have died this week in the New South Wales region and the neighboring state of Victoria, The Associated Press reported.

“More than a quarter of the country is on fire. This state of emergency is rocking Australia to its core,” said Natasha Exelby, a reporter for Network 10, on “CBS This Morning.”

The state of emergency is set to last seven days in anticipation of a potentially catastrophic day on Saturday, according to New South Wales (NSW) Premier Gladys Berejiklian. The premier said the state of emergency will allow for emergency personnel to evacuate people, as well as open and close roads. People evacuating from the region have been facing gridlocked traffic and long lines at gas stations and supermarkets.

Under NSW’s State of Emergency and Rescue Management Act of 1989, the declaration triggers a range of measures and gives the Rural Fire Service commissioner powers to forcibly evacuate people, control over the allocation of government resources, among other powers.

“We don’t take these decisions lightly. But we also want to make sure we’re taking every single precaution to be prepared for what could be a horrible day on Saturday,” Berejiklian said at a press conference announcing the state of emergency.

Strong winds are expected on Saturday, and temperatures are expected to surpass 100 degrees Fahrenheit (at least 40 degrees Celsius).

“There are a lot of tourists on the move, and allowing us to declare the state of emergency… will allow us to ensure that we can provide safe access to roads,” Berejiklian said.

Where are the fires burning?

The fires are primarily raging in New South Wales, which is home to Sydney and more than seven million people.

The nearby Australian state of Victoria in the country’s southeast is also being hit hard. Earlier this week, fires turned day to night in the coastal tourist town of Mallacoota. A siren sounded Tuesday morning, telling about 4,000 people to flee to the town’s waterfront, BBC News reported. By mid-morning, the sky turned pitch black before turning a shade of red.

The sky glows red as bushfires continue to rage in Mallacoota, Victoria, Australia, December 31, 2019.SOCIAL MEDIA

Mass evacuations, being facilitated by the military, began on Friday morning in Victoria. Thousands of people were being taken to a port near Melbourne, about a 17-hour-long journey, according to Network 10 reporter Exelby.

Australian Minister of Defense Linda Reynolds tweeted that defense helicopters are transporting firefighters, performing recon, as wells as search and rescue operations in Mallacoota. The Associated Press reported the military delivered food, water, fuel and medical expertise to Mallacoota, and about 500 people were going to be evacuated from the town by a naval ship.

Fire Map:

Map of Australia’s fire activity.  NASA

Why are there fires in Australia?

Bushfires are normally a natural process in Australia. But the combination of drought, record-breaking heat, and strong winds have contributed to the devastating proportions of this year’s fires.

A drought has plagued eastern Australia since early 2017, and rainfall in November was the lowest ever on record, according to the Bureau of Meteorology, the government agency responsible for providing weather services.

According to a December special report produced by the bureau on their 2019 spring (our fall) fire conditions, the season “saw the highest fire weather danger as measured by the Forest Fire Danger Index (FFDI), with record-high values observed in areas of all States and Territories.”

“The dangerous fire weather conditions during spring 2019 is consistent with the increasingly severe fire weather seen in many areas of the country, owing to increasing temperatures and reduced cool season rainfall,” the bureau wrote.

When did the fires start?

Fires began to intensify at the start of Australia’s summer, in September.

“The season began with areas of northeast New South Wales and southeast Queensland having above-average daytime temperatures, very low humidity, and gusty winds leading to dangerous fire weather conditions,” The Bureau of Meteorology wrote in their spring fire report. “FFDI values were 100 or above (catastrophic category) at some locations in New South Wales on 6 September, which marked the onset of numerous large fires in eastern Australia.”

Prime Minister Scott Morrison said at a press conference on New Year’s Day that the fires will last until the rain comes.

“Unlike a flood, where the water will recede, in a fire like this, it goes on. And it will continue to go on — as those in the agencies have advised us — until we can get some decent rain,” Morrison said.

Forecasters predict the fires will get worse in the coming days.

How many acres (hectares) have burnt?

About 7 million acres (three million hectares) have burned in New South Wales since July, according to the area’s Rural Fire Service, the BBC reported. And about 12.35 million acres (five million hectares) of land have burned across the country, according to The Associated Press.

To put that in perspective, about 4 million acres (1.8 million hectares) burned in California’s 2018 wildfires, and about 2 million acres (900,000 hectares) burned during Brazil’s 2019 Amazon fires.

More than 1,400 homes have been destroyed, according to The Associated Press.

Some flames have been reported to reach up to 230 feet (70 meters) in height, according to the fire service. For comparison, the Sydney Opera House is about 213 feet (65 meters) tall.

What is being done to stop the fires?

The NSW Rural Fire Service (RFS), the world’s largest fire service, made up of 74,000 volunteer members, is working to stymie the fires. The federal government has agreed to a plan to provide financial compensation to the firefighters who have volunteered their time, the BBC reported.

Morrison initially rejected the plan, saying it should not lead to permanent pay.

“While I know RFS volunteers don’t seek payment for their service, I don’t want to see volunteers or families unable to pay bills, or struggle financially as a result of the selfless contribution they are making,” Morrison said in announcing his compensation decision, after weeks of criticism by opposition parties. “This is not about paying volunteers. It is about sustaining our volunteer efforts by protecting them from financial loss.”

Emergency Management Minister David Littleproud said at a press conference on New Year’s Day that “everything that humanly possibly can be done, is being done.”

Morrison’s government has faced criticism for its response to the current crisis, and to climate change as a whole. During a visit on Thursday to the coastal village of Cobargo in New South Wales where two people died and many lost their homes, Morrison was berated by locals.

“Every single time this area has a flood or a fire, we get nothing. If we were Sydney, if we were north coast, we would be flooded with donations with urgent emergency relief,” a resident in Cobargo told The Associated Press.

Residents directly criticized the prime minister for the lack of equipment to deal with the fires in town. In at least one incident in New South Wales, a woman refused to shake hands with Morrison. He then grabbed her hand to shake it.

In a separate incident during the same visit, a firefighter also refused to shake Morrison’s hand.

Morrison has urged those who are evacuating to be patient, The Guardian reported. He has defended his climate policies.

“Let me be clear to the Australian people, our emissions reductions policies will both protect our environment and seek to reduce the risk and hazard we are seeing today. At the same time, it will seek to make sure the viability of people’s jobs and livelihoods, all around the country,” Morrison said.

Last month, the prime minister vacationed in Hawaii while the bushfires intensified back home. He cut his trip short after receiving public backlash, The Guardian reported.

Source: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/australia-fires-fire-map-5-questions-answered-how-many-hectares-have-burnt-where-are-the-fires-burning/

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More than 800 million of those animals are estimated to have been killed in New South Wales alone, according to a statement from The University of Sydney.

“It’s events like this that may well hasten the extinction process for a range of other species,” Professor Chris Dickman of The University of Sydney, the expert who made the estimate, told National Public Radio.

Dickman, an ecologist, has more than 30 years of experience in the conservation and management of Australian mammals. He is the former president of the Australian Mammal Society and the Royal Zoological Society of NSW.

Previous numbers estimated that more than 480 million animals had been killed since the September fires began.

A kangaroo rushes past a burning house in Lake Conjola, Australia, Dec. 31, 2019. Matthew Abbott/The New York Times via Redux

However, Dickman warns that he was deliberately conservative with the estimates and expects the true mortality rate “to be substantially higher.”

The animals in the estimate include mammals (excluding bats), birds and reptiles, but does not include frogs, insects or other invertebrates. ABC News has reached out to Dickman for more details.

Australia’s fire season typically runs from December to March, but these fires began in September and are expected to last for several more months.

The staggering loss of life is the latest catastrophic effect the fires have had on the country.

So far this fire season, 1,687 homes have been destroyed in New South Wales, with 771 homes lost since Jan. 1 alone, according to the state’s Rural Fire Service.

An injured koala rests in a basket at the Kangaroo Island Wildlife Park in the Parndana region on January 8, 2020 on Kangaroo Island, Australia. Lisa Maree Williams/Getty Images

“That figure is likely to increase,” a tweet from the firefighting agency read.

Paula Ugrinov, a resident of Mogo, New South Wales, was one of the many residents who lost her home.

She received a call from her neighbor that her house had been destroyed, and on Wednesday, she returned to see it for herself.

A firefighter manages a controlled burn near Tomerong, Australia, Jan. 8, 2020, set in an effort to contain a larger fire nearby. Rick Rycroft/AP

“It’s just so naked. It looks bizarre,” Ugrinov told ABC News’ Chief Meteorologist Ginger Zee.

Ugrinov said she isn’t sure what she will do next, but is confident Mogo will stand tall once again.

“I just think that the community will pull together even stronger. It will be restored,” she said. “I believe God can work through this and restore.”

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(PERTH, Australia) — Thousands of tourists fled Australia’s wildfire-ravaged eastern coast Thursday ahead of worsening conditions as the military started to evacuate people trapped on the shore further south.

Cooler weather since Tuesday has aided firefighting and allowed people to replenish supplies. Vehicles formed long lines at gas stations and supermarkets, and traffic was gridlocked as highways reopened. But fire conditions were expected to deteriorate Saturday as high temperatures and strong winds return.

“There is every potential that the conditions on Saturday will be as bad or worse than we saw (on Tuesday),” New South Wales Rural Fire Service Deputy Commissioner Rob Rogers said.

Authorities said 381 homes had been destroyed on the New South Wales southern coast this week and at least eight people have died this week in the state and neighboring Victoria, Australia’s two most-populous states, where more than 200 fires are currently burning.

New South Wales authorities in the morning ordered tourists to leave a 250-kilometer (155-mile) zone along the picturesque south coast. State Transport Minister Andrew Constance said it is the “largest mass relocation of people out of the region that we’ve ever seen.”

In Victoria, where 68 homes have burned this week, the military was helping thousands of people who fled to the shore as a wildfire threatened their homes Tuesday in the coastal town of Mallacoota. Food, water, fuel and medical expertise were being delivered and about 500 people were going to be evacuated from the town by a naval ship.

“We think around 3,000 tourists and 1,000 locals are there. Not all of those will want to leave, not all can get on the vessel at one time,” Victoria Premier Daniel Andrews told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

The early and devastating start to Australia’s summer wildfires has led authorities to rate this season the worst on record. About 5 million hectares (12.35 million acres) of land have burned, with at least 17 people dead and more than 1,300 homes destroyed.

Prime Minster Scott Morrison said the crisis was likely to last for months. “It (fires) will continue to go on until we can get some decent rain that can deal with some of the fires that have been burning for many, many months,” Morrison told reporters on Thursday.

Smoke from the wildfires caused the air quality in the national capital, Canberra, to be the world’s worst and was blowing into New Zealand.

Source: https://time.com/5757634/australia-bushfires-tourists-flee/

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A state of emergency has been declared in New South Wales as bushfires continue to devastate Australia.

New South Wales premier Gladys Berejiklian said the state of emergency will last for seven days, and three emergency warning alerts have already been issued for fire, according to the Sydney Morning Herald.

Berejiklian added that New South Wales is entering a period of grim uncertainty as a heatwave and high winds threaten to ramp up bushfires.

“The biggest concern over the next few days is the unpredictability, with extreme wind conditions [and] extremely hot temperatures,” she said during a press conference on Thursday.

It is the second state of emergency to be declared in the state since the start of the bushfire season.

Residents still in Currowan, Green Wattle Creek and Tianjara are advised by local police to remain in place because it is “too late to leave”.

“Seek shelter as the fire approaches. Protect yourself from the heat of the fire,” the New South Wales Police Force said on Facebook.

There are currently up to 100 fires burning across New South Wales.

The Rural Fire Service (RFS) issued extreme fire danger warnings for Illawarra, Greater Sydney and Shoalhaven, and Southern Ranges, according to its website.

According to the Sydney Morning Herald, the state of emergency gives the RFS power to evacuate properties, close roads, pull down infrastructure at risk of collapse and order the shutdown of electricity, gas, oil, and water.

The powers also include the RFS being able to direct any government agency to conduct or refrain from carrying out its functions.

Source: https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/world/2019/12/state-of-emergency-declared-in-new-south-wales-following-devastating-bushfires.html

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Bushfires that razed dozens of homes in southeast Australia have now been mostly contained, but not before causing damage to or destroying several homes and other buildings.

The New South Wales Rural Fire Service Commissioner said the worst-hit town was Tathra on the south coast of New South Wales state, where more than 70 homes and businesses were severely damaged or destroyed by a fire that started in woods around midday on Sunday.

Power was cut to thousands more properties, and many livestock were killed.

He added that some of Tathra’s evacuated residents would be able to return to their homes on Monday, as emergency workers restore power to the devastated area.

The New South Wales state Premier Gladys Berejiklian told reporters in Sydney that she’s “absolutely heartbroken.” She says her state government will do all it can to support those affected.

Meanwhile, bushfires also ravaged Victoria. Several homes and sheds have been destroyed, and hundreds of residents have been forced to evacuate their homes, according to local media.

Fires claimed at least 18 homes in the state’s south-west, but Premier Daniel Andrews was eager to stress how important it was to recognise there has been no loss of human life. However, thousands of livestock have perished in the blazes.

Andrews toured the area on Monday as fire crews worked to extinguish four significant blazes near Warrnambool. These are the state’s worst fires of the season.

The rail line between Geelong and Warrnambool also remains closed, with buses replacing trains.

At one stage up to 40,000 homes were without electricity. Power has now been restored to most houses in the area.

Efforts to contain the fires, which are raging across the state’s southwest, were hampered by strong winds gusting up to 140kph.

There have been 160 bush and grass fires since Saturday morning, which have burned through more than 40,000 hectares across the state.

Milder conditions have now arrived, and that has helped the 500 firefighters gain the upper hand on the four largest blazes.

Source: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2018/03/bushfires-rage-parts-southeast-australia-180319090610432.html

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