Rain brings brief respite in Australian bushfire crisis

[webfact]

Rain brings brief respite in Australian bushfire crisis

 

Cobargo resident John Aish walks through a destroyed home in Cobargo, as bushfires continue in New South Wales, Australia January 5, 2020. REUTERS/Tracey Nearmy

 

MELBOURNE (Reuters) - A second day of light rain brought relief for firefighters battling bushfires that have killed 24 people across southeastern Australia, but hot, windy conditions are expected to return later in the week, officials warned on Monday.

 

 

Sooty rain came down all along the coast, from Sydney all the way to Melbourne, with temperatures much lower in the low 20s Celsius (low 70s Fahrenheit), down from nearly 40 degrees C (104F) in some areas over the weekend.

 

"There is no room for complacency, especially given we have over 130 fires burning across the state still," New South Wales state Premier Gladys Berejiklian told reporters on Monday morning.

 

Two people were missing in the state of New South Wales and fire authorities were still trying to assess damage from fires which ravaged small towns in the state's southeast last week, she said.

 

"This morning it is all about recovery, making sure people who have been displaced have somewhere safe (to go) and it is making sure we have resources to build up the presence on the ground to clean up the roads, clean up where the rubble exists," Berejiklian said.

 

Australia begins a damage assessment amid temporary respite from bushfires, although the threat of more blazes remains. Adam Reed reports.

 

Fire officials said that while the rain had brought relief to firefighters and communities ravaged by fires, it posed challenges for back-burning efforts to reduce fuel for future fires and bring existing fires under control.

 

In Batemans Bay on the New South Wales south coast, power was expected to remain out for several more days. Further south in Bermagui, food and fuel were running out, Australian Broadcasting Corp reported.

 

Thousands of vacationers and locals have been stranded on beaches at the height of the summer holiday season, taking shelter from out-of-control fires.

 

More than a thousand people were evacuated by two naval ships on Friday from the town of Mallacoota in Victoria state, while others have been evacuated by helicopter from towns where roads have been cut off.

 

The bushfire season started earlier than normal this year following a three-year drought that has left much of the country's bushland tinder-dry and vulnerable to fires. More than 5 million hectares (12 million acres) of land have been destroyed so far this season.

 

Prime Minister Scott Morrison stepped up efforts to tackle the national emergency on the weekend, with an unprecedented call-up of army reservists to support firefighters, in what has been seen as a slow response by the federal government.

 

"Poor political judgment is one thing. Competency is another thing altogether. This is the political danger zone Scott Morrison wants to avoid in his handling of the bushfire crisis," Rupert Murdoch's The Australian, a supporter of the government, said in an article by the newspaper's national affairs editor on Monday.

 

(Reporting by Sonali Paul; editing by Jonathan Oatis)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2020-01-06

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[overherebc]

12,000,000 acres? If my figures are near that's about one fifth of the land area of UK that's been burned.

I really hope they get a lot of rain soon and at least the flora will survive but that I know will be a minor consideration compared to the loss of life and homes. 

I don't often think too much about other countries disasters but I do feel a lot for Oz and the Aussies affected at the moment.

[Lemonltr]

I feel so overwhelmingly sad for our Australian cousins who have been burned out of their homes. It's trajic for them. Thousands of poor animals too. 

[URMySunshine]

Keep on raining and raining

 

https://www.zerohedge.com/health/its-atomic-bomb-australia-deploys-military-monstrous-storm-creates-its-own-weather-crisis

 

 

[ravip]

Bushfires in Australia seems to have been happening since 1851. It is indeed very sad to hear the extent of suffering caused to wildlife and humans due to these fires. Is this something that has no solution?

Makes me think of floods in Thailand...

[Calach]

Next: floods. 

[URMySunshine]

31 minutes ago, ravip said:

Bushfires in Australia seems to have been happening since 1851. It is indeed very sad to hear the extent of suffering caused to wildlife and humans due to these fires. Is this something that has no solution?

Makes me think of floods in Thailand...

This is a ray of hope.

 

https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/it-s-miraculous-owners-say-cultural-burning-saved-their-property-20200103-p53okc.html

[tifino]

 except that, even 200km west of it all, in Melbourne; the stinking pea soup grey smog is thickly lingering down to ground level, and visibility in the 100s of metres ATM.

  The rain has been a nonstop misting for at least 24hours now... The rain cloud has locked all the smog down low, much like living in a proverbial dutch oven ???? 

 

The smell woke me up like an alarm clock this morning! - I thought it was brown smells from the plasma tv!

[Mick501]

6 hours ago, overherebc said:

12,000,000 acres? If my figures are near that's about one fifth of the land area of UK that's been burned.

I really hope they get a lot of rain soon and at least the flora will survive but that I know will be a minor consideration compared to the loss of life and homes. 

I don't often think too much about other countries disasters but I do feel a lot for Oz and the Aussies affected at the moment.

50000 square kilometres, give or take.   Aus is roughly 17 million square kilometres, although much of that is arid and unusable.  Certainly a huge area is gone.  About 1/10th the size of Thailand.

[overherebc]

4 minutes ago, Mick501 said:

50000 square kilometres, give or take.   Aus is roughly 17 million square kilometres, although much of that is arid and unusable.  Certainly a huge area is gone.  About 1/10th the size of Thailand.

BBC saying since the fires started the burn area is in total the same land area as Ireland.

[Mick501]

6 minutes ago, overherebc said:

BBC saying since the fires started the burn area is in total the same land area as Ireland.

Yeah, hard to get ones head around the scale .  Forests will recover in 10 years or so.  It will probably help the economy long term.  Historically housing prices go up after massive stimulation to the building industry.

 

the true loss is the wildlife and the dead people.

[mikey00]

8 hours ago, URMySunshine said:

Keep on raining and raining

 

https://www.zerohedge.com/health/its-atomic-bomb-australia-deploys-military-monstrous-storm-creates-its-own-weather-crisis

 

 

Hahahahahahahahaha, nice work NASA, the middle of Oz is one massive desert with extremely limited bush to burn.

This pic is not a pic, it's pure horse$$^% to push the global warming farce. If you believe this, you are not an idiot, because how would you know. But you are definitely being lied to

[Stargeezr]

This bushfire season in Australia is brutal, but I do not believe the country has to stop its coal mining operations because of the fires. After all if Australia has decent coal that China wants, well sell as much as you can as that is a good profit for the industry and country.

I say the same for any country that has coal deposits.  For the green people, go to Quebec Canada and see their asbestos mines, there is a mining industry that needs shut down today.

Geezer