Australia: Storms batter drought-ravaged New South Wales and Queensland - BBC News

New South Wales resident Mark Cashion was driving near the town of Nyngan when he came across a flash flood.

Rain and floods have hit the eastern states of New South Wales and Queensland in Australia, and some drought-affected regions have received their heaviest rainfall in two years.

Although it's welcome, more sustained rainfall over months is needed to break the drought.

Heavy rain in areas with no vegetation can lead to washing away of topsoil.

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2020-02-06 06:50:09Z
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Australia: Storms batter drought-ravaged New South Wales and Queensland - BBC News

New South Wales resident Mark Cashion was driving near the town of Nyngan when he came across a flash flood.

Rain and floods have hit the eastern states of New South Wales and Queensland in Australia, and some drought-affected regions have received their heaviest rainfall in two years.

Although it's welcome, more sustained rainfall over months is needed to break the drought.

Heavy rain in areas with no vegetation can lead to washing away of topsoil.

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2020-02-06 06:48:03Z
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Australia: Storms batter drought-ravaged New South Wales and Queensland - BBC News

New South Wales resident Mark Cashion was driving near the town of Nyngan when he came across a flash flood.

Rain and floods have hit the eastern states of New South Wales and Queensland in Australia, and some drought-affected regions have received their heaviest rainfall in two years.

Although it's welcome, more sustained rainfall over months is needed to break the drought.

Heavy rain in areas with no vegetation can lead to washing away of topsoil.

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2020-02-06 05:07:39Z
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Australia: Storms batter drought-ravaged New South Wales and Queensland - BBC News

New South Wales resident Mark Cashion was driving near the town of Nyngan when he came across a flash flood.

Rain and floods have hit the eastern states of New South Wales and Queensland in Australia, and some drought-affected regions have received their heaviest rainfall in two years.

Although it's welcome, more sustained rainfall over months is needed to break the drought.

Heavy rain in areas with no vegetation can lead to washing away of topsoil.

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2020-02-06 04:45:13Z
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Bodies of 2 American firefighters killed battling Australia blazes sent home - Fox News

The bodies of two of the three American firefighters killed last month when their C-130 Hercules water tanker plane crashed while battling the raging wildfires in Australia returned home Wednesday.

Capt. Ian H. McBeth, 44, of Great Falls, Mont., First Officer Paul Clyde Hudson, 42, of Buckeye, Ariz., and Flight Engineer Rick DeMorgan Jr., 43, of Navarre, Fla., were dumping retardant on a massive fire in a mountainous area in southern New South Wales on Jan. 23 when the aircraft went down, killing all three.

3 AMERICAN FIREFIGHTERS KILLED IN AUSTRALIA CRASH -- ALL US MILITARY VETERANS -- ARE IDENTIFIED

The bodies of McBeth and Hudson were seen off at Sydney Airport in U.S. flag-draped caskets as mourning relatives and fire trucks with their lights flashing observed the hearses cross the tarmac, Reuters reported.

The remains of Ian McBeth, pictured left, and Paul Clyde Hudson journeyed back to the U.S. on Wednesday. (McBeth Family via AP / Coulson Aviation USA)

DeMorgan will be honored at a ceremony at a military base north of Sydney on Saturday before his remains make the journey home, according to the report.

Rick DeMorgan served in the U.S. Air Force for 24 years and had over 4,000 hours of experience as a flight engineer, with nearly half of those earned in combat situations. (Rick DeMorgan/Courtesy of Virginia DeMorgan via AP)

The trio – all U.S. military veterans – served on a California-based crew for Coulson Aviation USA, a private Canadian company that helps battle fires around the globe.

AUSTRALIA WILDFIRE OVERRUNS FIREFIGHTERS IN MINUTES AS 'DAY TURNS TO NIGHT' IN DRAMATIC VIDEO

McBeth served in both the Montana Air National Guard and the Wyoming Air National Guard; Hudson served in the Marine Corps after graduating from the U.S. Naval Academy, and DeMorgan served 18 years in the U.S. Air Force.

Wreckage of the tanker was strewn at the crash site near Numeralla, southwest of Sydney. (NSW Police via AP)

The three men were among nearly 150 U.S. firefighters sent to assist in the ongoing battle against the deadly wildfires that have scorched Australia since September.

The blazes have so far killed at least 33 people, including nine firefighters. The fires have also killed over a billion animals, destroyed more than 3,000 homes and torched an area over 40,000 square miles – about the size of Ohio.

The Australian Transport Safety Bureau is investigating the crash, according to the report.

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McBeth is survived by his wife and three children, Hudson by his wife and DeMorgan by two children, Coulson said in a statement following the crash last month.

Fox News' Dom Calicchio and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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2020-02-05 14:57:53Z
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'Australia Should Be Ashamed' After More Than 40 Koalas Killed on Logging Site - TIME

Scores of koalas — as well as many other animals — have been found injured or dead on a blue gum plantation in south-west Victoria, Australia after trees on the property were logged. Recent bushfires in Australia have taken the lives of thousands of koalas, a species already endangered in the country. This latest incident is yet another hit on their habitats.

The Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning has been conducting an investigation on-site.

Victoria’s environmental minister Lily D’Ambrosio called the event “devastating” and said her department was also investigating. “Every Victorian can rightly feel not only appalled, deeply saddened and heartbroken, but angry. I am absolutely angry,” D’Ambrosio told The Guardian on Monday.

More than 40 koalas have been killed, with investigators on the scene noting that the number could rise as felled timber is still being cleared.

Over 80 koalas have been assessed since Friday by veterinarians, and 30 were reportedly euthanized due to injuries suffered in addition to those found dead on the site. Koalas that survived the event are being treated for starvation and broken bones by vets or at wildlife centers.

The land was harvested for timber by South West Fibre, a logging company, in October 2019, but was handed back to the private land’s owners the following month. A company spokesperson for South West Fibre said 72 koalas were on site at the conclusion of its logging work; in a statement, the company added:

SWF left an appropriate number of ‘habitat trees’ for the existing koala population and provided details of such in a letter to the landowner noting that the koalas were uninjured and in good health.

It is understood that subsequent to SWF completing its work, the remaining trees have since been cleared. This is particularly concerning to the foresters and staff who worked assiduously to protect the koalas during the harvesting operation.

While authorities have yet to publicly identify a perpetrator, the Australian Forest Products Association told The Age that, “it is absolutely certain that this was not a plantation or a forestry company.”

Keith Troeth, whose family owns the land, also told The Age that he had approved the trees being bulldozed, and argued the response to the koalas’ deaths was being blown out of proportion. “There may have been one or two koalas killed and I’ll wear the responsibility,” he said. “But it’s not the big hoo-ha it’s been made out to be.”

“We made every effort to do it professionally, we made every effort to minimize any [fatalities],” he added.

Troeth did not immediately respond to TIME’s request for comment.

D’Ambrosio said the government considers the act a breach of the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act and the Wildlife Act. “We will do everything possible to bring the people responsible for this to account and will throw every penalty available to us at them,” she said.

“Look at the destruction that they have done,” local resident Helen Oakley said in a tearful video that has gone viral. “There are mothers killed with their little babies. Australia should be ashamed of this.”

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2020-02-04 21:26:15Z
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Beekeeper blamed for sparking massive Australian fire - New York Post

One of the latest wildfires to ravage Australia was accidentally sparked by a careless beekeeper, according to new reports.

The blaze was kicked up in the Pialligo Redwood Forest in Australia’s Capital Territory on Jan. 22 when a beekeeper’s “smoker” — a device used to keep bees calm — ignited the dry brush, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation reported.

The fire has since shut down the local airport and threatened to engulf homes and businesses in nearby suburbs in the Canberra region.

A government spokesman told the Canberra Times that beekeepers “self-reported that they were involved in the ignition of the fire whilst undertaking bee surveillance activities around Canberra Airport.”

Dermot Asis Sha’Non, president of the Canberra Region Beekeepers, told the ABC that the beekeeper inspecting the hives was trying to finish his work on deadline and before a “total fire ban” went into effect in the region.

“The person inspecting wanted to keep in mind that there was a total fire ban, so worked to avoid that,” Sha’Non said. “But it didn’t work out.”

A plane taxis as Canberra Airport is blanketed with bushfire smoke on Jan. 23 in Canberra, Australia.Getty Images

Instead, fuel used to generate the smoker’s fumes, which allow beekeepers to safety approach the bees for inspection or to collect honey, accidentally ignited brush nearby and sparked the fire, the ABC said.

The bee colony was likely destroyed, the report said.

The hives are maintained by “hobby keepers,” but are part of a national bee pest surveillance program that serves as an early warning system throughout Australia to detect the exotic species that could threaten other bees.

It is run by Plant Health Australia, a national plant biosecurity coordinator.

The fire is just one of many infernos that have burned through huge swaths of Australia for months, scorching 21 million acres, killing at least 28 people and wiping out millions of animals.

Fire crews work to contain a fire near at the industrial suburb of Beard and residential suburb of Oaks Estate on Jan. 23 in Canberra.Getty Images

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2020-02-04 22:47:00Z
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