Australia floods: Fire-hit Australia faces 'dangerous' downpours - BBC News

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The Australian state of New South Wales (NSW) is braced for severe wet weather this weekend as downpours ease the bushfire crisis in the region.

Severe weather warnings for rain, winds and flooding have been issued for coastal areas of the eastern state.

Australia's Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) warned of "dangerous conditions" on Saturday and Sunday.

There has already been flooding in Sydney and other areas along the coast.

Friday was the wettest day recorded in well over a year in Sydney, where roads were closed and public transport delayed.

Other NSW towns faced flood waters as well, including Byron Bay and Coffs Harbour, where 280mm and 250mm of rain fell respectively.

The heavy rains are expected to continue until early next week, providing relief to some drought and fire-ravaged areas.

NSW Rural Fire Service said the rain had extinguished a third of the blazes there, but as of Friday, 43 were still burning.

"Good rainfall is being recorded in parts of the state, with a hope it continues to drop where needed most," the fire service said.

What's the forecast this weekend?

A weather system developing off the east coast of New South Wales is forecast to intensify over the weekend, after moving south from neighbouring Queensland.

The BOM has issued a severe weather warning for a large stretch of coastline, from Coffs Harbour in the north to Batemans Bay in the south.

Heavy rainfall is likely to cause flash flooding in parts of the Mid North Coast, lower Hunter, Sydney Metropolitan, and Illawarra regions, and eastern parts of the Central Tablelands, the BOM said.

Damaging winds of up to 55mph (90 km/h), abnormally high tides, and damaging surf conditions were also forecast in parts of the affected area.

The State Emergency Service in New South Wales advised residents to leave low-lying areas "well before flash flooding begins" but "only if it is safe to do so".

Weather warnings are also in force in Queensland, where severe thunderstorms are forecast "to produce heavy rainfall that may lead to flash flooding".

Meanwhile in Western Australia, residents are hunkering down as a tropical cyclone approaches the state's northern coast. The cyclone is forecast to hit coastal areas on Saturday, unleashing powerful gusts and torrential rain.

What impact has the weather had on bushfires?

NSW fire officials said they were "over the moon" to see the state's forecast for a week-long drenching come to fruition.

"This isn't just one of those scattered showers we saw a month ago," NSW Rural Fire Service (NSWRFS) spokeswoman Angela Burford told the BBC. "This is really helping our firefighters, and in some places, giving them a well-needed rest."

However, Ms Burford warned that the largest blazes, in the state's inland south and near the capital city of Canberra, had received limited showers so far and were still of concern.

Much of NSW has been in drought for over three years, and such conditions have fuelled the intensity of the summer's unprecedented fires. Some fires, which were finally contained this week, have been burning for over two months.

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NSW fire chief Shane Fitzsimmons said hotter and drier conditions were expected to return in the coming weeks. The state's bushfire season, which began in September, could run until as late as April.

However, he said this particular period of rain "is breaking the back of this fire season, no doubt".

NSW has been the state most devastated in Australia's 2019-20 bushfires crisis. The unprecedented scale and intensity of the blazes is a direct effect of climate change, scientists say.

Officials have warned that the peak of fire danger is still to come for the southern states of Victoria and South Australia.

Nationally, blazes have killed at least 33 people and destroyed thousands of homes. More than 11 million hectares of land - an area comparable to the size of England - has been scorched.

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2020-02-07 18:45:34Z
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Australia's East Gets Drenched By Rain, And Flood Warnings Replace Fire Alerts - NPR

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People commute to work through heavy rain in Sydney on Friday. Severe weather brought warnings of floods and landslides along much of the New South Wales coast after months of concerns over wildfires. Brendon Thorne/Getty Images hide caption

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Brendon Thorne/Getty Images

A month ago, Australians were praying for rain to put out horrific wildfires and save forests, animals and homes. A deluge is now falling on Australia's east coast — and while it's quashing stubborn fires, the water is also causing flash floods and other hazards.

The Bureau of Meteorology in New South Wales, the country's most populous state, warns of "very dangerous conditions" ranging from heavy rain to damaging winds.

One of the highest rain totals was reported in Byron Bay, where 11 inches of rain fell in less than 24 hours, flooding neighborhoods and stores and triggering at least one mudslide.

Forecasters predict the rain will only intensify and spread over the weekend, with rainfall totals expected to be "well in excess" of 4 inches in many places along Australia's southeast coast.

"For our fire grounds where the landscape is so vulnerable right now, this means the risk of falling trees and landslides, and large volumes of runoff containing debris, including ash, soil, trees and rocks," BOM meteorologist Adam Morgan said in a video update around midday local time on Friday.

Severe Weather Update: widespread heavy rainfall and flood risk along the east coast. 7 February 2020

Video is current at 1 pm AEDT 7 February 2020.

For the latest weather and warnings, information visit https://t.co/qlzYU0jRuR and follow advice from emergency services. pic.twitter.com/t64rcJS249

— Bureau of Meteorology, Australia (@BOM_au) February 7, 2020

It's not yet certain how much the rain will do to ease the severe drought that has gripped much of southeastern Australia. But Morgan said, "It's hard to imagine fires still burning along the south coast following the expected rain."

Fire officials in New South Wales had announced they were "over the moon" when sustained rains started falling, saying more than 40 fires were still burning, including at least 17 that weren't yet contained. As of Thursday, more than 1,000 firefighters were still battling bushfires in the state.

But on Friday, the NSW Rural Fire Service announced "a significant shift in focus today from fires to floods," saying the torrential rains had forced it to abruptly reconfigure its operations center to cope with the rush of flood-related emergencies, including swift water rescues.

Around 2,500 calls for help came in during 24 hours, said Deputy Commissioner Daniel Austin of the State Emergency Service, noting that about 500 of the calls came from the Sydney area. Those calls ranged from drivers who tried to drive through high waters and got trapped to people whose homes had been flooded.

The heavy rains also could raise the risk of contaminated drinking water, as the runoff will sweep ash from the watershed into an important reservoir created by the Warragamba Dam in New South Wales, which supplies much of the water to Sydney. The CEO of the state's water agency, David Harris, says teams are using booms and other methods to try to reduce the amount of sediment that reaches the reservoir.

Harris also said the rain will bring "a really welcome improvement" to the dam's water level, raising it from 43% to at least 47%, according to predictions.

The southeast isn't the only part of Australia that's currently under a weather warning: In Western Australia, Tropical Cyclone Damien, a Category 3 storm, was expected to strengthen further before making landfall late Friday or early Saturday local time.

When it hits the Pilbara coast, Damien could bring "very destructive" wind gusts of more than 140 mph to areas such as Port Hedland and Karratha, the BOM warns.

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2020-02-07 15:55:00Z
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Australia is getting some desperately needed rain. A downpour knocked back a third of New South Wales fires in a day - CNN

Heavy rains have knocked back the number of active fires in the state by almost a third -- in just one day, according to the New South Wales Rural Fire Service.

There had been 62 active fires Wednesday night, with 20 not contained, according to the agency.

That number dropped to 42 active fires by Thursday night, and only 17 not contained.

"Today we were over the moon to see rain arrive across many parts of New South Wales, with decent fall in the State's north. Fingers crossed we see this rainfall remain steady and reach the firegrounds in Southern NSW over the weekend," officials wrote on Facebook.

Some 1,200 firefighters and support personnel were working to take advantage of the rainy conditions, they said.

Some areas got about 4 to 6 inches (100 to 150 mm) of rain in 24 hours, and more rain was in the forecast for the southeastern coast of Australia.

A wide zone, from Brisbane down to Melbourne, could also get 4 to 6 inches of rain over the next several days, and there is a high risk of flooding this week, especially in coastal areas, the Bureau of Meteorology warns.

Wildfires have killed more than 20 people and destroyed millions of acres of land since the fire season began in July. More than 1 billion animals have been killed across Australia, ecologists at the University of Sydney estimate.

CNN Meteorologist Haley Brink contributed to this story.

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2020-02-06 19:23:00Z
CAIiEJ_pnELMVIHuRWDcM0fc8_sqGQgEKhAIACoHCAowocv1CjCSptoCMPrTpgU

Australia is getting some desperately needed rain. A downpour knocked back a third of New South Wales fires in a day - CNN

Heavy rains have knocked back the number of active fires in the state by almost a third -- in just one day, according to the New South Wales Rural Fire Service.

There had been 62 active fires Wednesday night, with 20 not contained, according to the agency.

That number dropped to 42 active fires by Thursday night, and only 17 not contained.

"Today we were over the moon to see rain arrive across many parts of New South Wales, with decent fall in the State's north. Fingers crossed we see this rainfall remain steady and reach the firegrounds in Southern NSW over the weekend," officials wrote on Facebook.

Some 1,200 firefighters and support personnel were working to take advantage of the rainy conditions, they said.

Some areas got about 4 to 6 inches (100 to 150 mm) of rain in 24 hours, and more rain was in the forecast for the southeastern coast of Australia.

A wide zone, from Brisbane down to Melbourne, could also get 4 to 6 inches of rain over the next several days, and there is a high risk of flooding this week, especially in coastal areas, the Bureau of Meteorology warns.

Wildfires have killed more than 20 people and destroyed millions of acres of land since the fire season began in July. More than 1 billion animals have been killed across Australia, ecologists at the University of Sydney estimate.

CNN Meteorologist Haley Brink contributed to this story.

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2020-02-06 17:01:00Z
52780593733204

What It’s Like to Be Quarantined on an Australian Island - The New York Times

Life in an immigration detention center on Australia’s Christmas Island has not been as bad as David Huang feared. It is certainly a far cry from the conditions that thousands of asylum seekers have faced in the country’s offshore detention centers in recent years.

Sure, the steel on the building’s facade is rusted in parts. The Wi-Fi is shaky, especially at meal times when he and others are trying to contact their families and friends. Dinner, at least on Tuesday, the first night he spent there, was uninspiring and mushy.

Yet after being evacuated from the Chinese city of Wuhan, the epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak, he had set his expectations low.

Mr. Huang, a 22-year-old student from Sydney, is one of about 270 Australian citizens and permanent residents who have been flown out of China in the past week and taken to Christmas Island. None of the evacuees have tested positive for the virus, Australia’s health minister said on Tuesday.

Health experts have criticized the government’s decision to quarantine them for two weeks in a center usually used to house asylum seekers rather than holding the evacuees in better-equipped military bases on the mainland. But while some evacuees have said the conditions at the center are worse than they had imagined, Mr. Huang said he personally found the quarantine bearable.

Although he said the travelers had found dead moths in their beds and dead cockroaches on the floors, and spent much of their first night in the center cleaning, Mr. Huang said he didn’t really mind.

The Coronavirus Outbreak

• What do you need to know? Start here.

  Updated Feb. 5, 2020

  • What is a Coronavirus, and how dangerous is it?
    Read up on the respiratory virus, including its symptoms and how it is transmitted.
  • How bad could the outbreak be?
    Here are the six key factors that will determine whether it can be contained.
  • Where has the virus spread?
    You can track its movementwith this map.
  • How is the United States being affected?
    There have been at least a dozen cases. American citizens and permanent residents who fly to the United States from China are now subject to a two-week quarantine.
  • What if I’m traveling?
    Several countries, including the United States, have discouraged travel to China, and several airlines have canceled flights.Many travelers have been left in limbo while looking to change or cancel bookings.
  • How do I keep myself and others safe?
    Washing your hands is the most important thing you can do.

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“It’s obviously not great for the rooms to have dirty conditions,” he said by telephone. “But I think its important to think about the fact that there are so many families here that they have to accommodate.”

Workers at the center have been responsive to the evacuees’ requests, Mr. Huang said. They added more fruit and vegetables to the meals, handed out soap and cigarettes, as well as sunscreen, shorts and sandals — attire more suited to the tropical island than the clothes they had brought from China. There are Xbox 360 gaming devices, which some of the evacuees were playing to pass the time.

Those in the quarantine have been given wrist bands with QR codes that, when scanned, provide access to their medical records. And every day, doctors wearing face masks and full protective medical gear take their temperatures.

Families are split into two people per room. Mr. Huang and his father are staying in one room, while his mother and brother are staying in another. The rooms have bunk beds and a desk. Showers and toilets are shared.

For Mr. Huang and his family, their journey began on Sunday in the city of Xiangyang in Hubei Province, about three hours away from Wuhan, the Chinese city hardest hit by the virus. They had been visiting relatives during the Lunar New Year holiday last month when the authorities locked down Xiangyang as part of a security cordon to contain the epidemic.

When the family decided to leave, they made a series of phone calls to Chinese and Australian officials and received documents that allowed them to drive through multiple checkpoints to Wuhan’s airport. The flight first landed on Learmonth, an air base in Western Australia. Passengers were then transferred on separate flights to Christmas Island.

There, Mr. Huang, who is worried about contracting the virus, has mostly kept to himself.

Each day after waking up, he goes for a walk outside the building, which is surrounded by tall fences. After breakfast and a medical check, Mr. Huang, who is studying game development, returns to his room, where he plays computer games for a few hours. Then he goes for another walk to check his social media accounts. To pass the time, his mother has been teaching him how to read and write Chinese characters.

“And repeat,” he said. “That’s what my daily schedule looks like.”

Mr. Huang said the hardest thing to deal with was the sense of isolation on an unfamiliar island, and he misses his friends in Sydney.

“Very, very homesick, I think describes both my family and the families around us,” he wrote on Facebook Messenger shortly before the internet seemed to drop out once more.

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2020-02-06 14:57:00Z
52780589688369

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 10:59:03Z
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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 09:57:16Z
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