Australia issues new evacuation alerts as monster bushfires regenerate

[webfact]

Australia issues new evacuation alerts as monster bushfires regenerate

By Sonali Paul

 

A destroyed car is seen next to burnt bushland in the village of Mogo, Australia January 8, 2020. REUTERS/Alkis Konstantinidis

 

MELBOURNE (Reuters) - Authorities issued new warnings and evacuation notices across southeast Australia on Thursday, as a return of hot weather fanned huge bushfires threatening several towns and communities.

 

A disaster level notice in large parts of Victoria state, already in place for the past week, was extended by 48 hours and people in danger zones were advised to leave if it was safe to do so.

 

"Don't get complacent from the rain we have had recently," Victoria Emergency Services Minister Lisa Neville said in a televised briefing, referring to several days of cool weather that has allowed firefighters to strengthen containment lines around blazes that have been burning for months.

 

"These fires are absolutely still moving, still growing in our landscape and they pose significant risk to communities," Neville said.

 

Twenty-six people have died, thousands have been made homeless and thousands of others have had to evacuate repeatedly as the monster fires have scorched through more than 10.3 million hectares (25.5 million acres) of land - an area the size of South Korea.

 

Authorities have said the blazes will continue to burn, posing extreme danger at times of high temperatures and winds, until the country experiences significant rainfall.

 

The official weather agency on Thursday confirmed fears that there was no sign of that happening in the next few months as it released its annual report, which also showed that 2019 was Australia's hottest and driest year on record.

 

The current crisis was sparked into life following a three-year drought that has left much of the country's bushland vulnerable to fires.

 

Many towns were without power and telecommunications and some were running low on drinking water supplies. Smoke has blanketed Sydney, Melbourne and Canberra, and drifted as far as South America.

 

Parts of Kangaroo Island, a wildlife-rich tourist spot off the country's southeast coast where Prime Minister Scott Morrison on Wednesday made a plea for foreign tourists not to be deterred by the fires, were again evacuated on Thursday. A third of the island has already been destroyed by fires.

 

The following are some highlights of what is happening in the bushfire crisis:

 

- Victoria state officials said "strike teams" of firefighters were being sent into high-risk areas, but new blazes could start anywhere given a forecast for extreme heat and potential lightning strikes. Officials credit the evacuation of tens of thousands of people in recent weeks with keeping the death toll from the fires low.

 

- New South Wales state on Thursday announced new funds of A$1 billion (£524.51 million) ($686 million) to rebuild infrastructure and communities affected by the bushfire.

 

- The majority of the fires that have devastated much of Australia's east coast occurred in New South Wales, where 1,870 homes have been destroyed so far, authorities said.

 

- Prime Minister Scott Morrison on Wednesday urged foreign tourists not to be deterred by deadly wildfires, fearing a lack of holiday-makers could hurt the economy. Some normally crowded resorts have already turned into ghost towns.

 

- Moody's Analytics said the cost of the fires could easily surpass that of the deadly 2009 Black Saturday fires that destroyed 450,000 hectares of land, which cost an estimated A$4.4 billion.

 

- Prime Minister Scott Morrison has pledged A$2 billion ($1.4 billion) to a newly created National Bushfire Recovery Agency.

 

- Ecologists at the University of Sydney on Wednesday doubled their estimate of the number of animals killed or injured in the fires to 1 billion.

 

- The fires have already emitted 400 megatonnes of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere and produced harmful pollutants, the EU's Copernicus monitoring programme said.

 

- Smoke has drifted across the Pacific, affecting cities in South America, and may have reached the Antarctic, the U.N. World Meteorological Organization said.

 

(Reporting by Sonali Paul, Paulina Duran, Colin Packham and Praveen Menon; writing by Jane Wardell; editing by Richard Pullin)

 

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2020-01-09

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[thaibeachlovers]

This will affect Australia for years after the fires are all out. Thousands of jobs vanished, homes destroyed, property and vehicles burnt.

Will people even be permitted to rebuild in such areas ( I hope not, else we see similar in years to come ).

Even finding places for evacuees to stay and feeding them is going to be a logistical nightmare.

[Enoon]

3 hours ago, thaibeachlovers said:

Even finding places for evacuees to stay and feeding them is going to be a logistical nightmare.

 

All set up and ready to go: Nauru, Manus.

 

 

Edited January 9, 2020 by Enoon

[car720]

They're a weird mob.

[tyga]

6 hours ago, thaibeachlovers said:

This will affect Australia for years after the fires are all out. Thousands of jobs vanished, homes destroyed, property and vehicles burnt.

Will people even be permitted to rebuild in such areas ( I hope not, else we see similar in years to come ).

Even finding places for evacuees to stay and feeding them is going to be a logistical nightmare.

We won't see 'similar', we will unfortunately see worse fires as climate change heats up the planet each year. Last year was second hottest ever. It is an exponential curve and we are at the near flat part at the start. Scary years ahead!

[soalbundy]

6 hours ago, thaibeachlovers said:

This will affect Australia for years after the fires are all out. Thousands of jobs vanished, homes destroyed, property and vehicles burnt.

Will people even be permitted to rebuild in such areas ( I hope not, else we see similar in years to come ).

Even finding places for evacuees to stay and feeding them is going to be a logistical nightmare.

National disasters are usually good for the economy, especially earthquakes, fires should be no different, everything has to be replaced, for the environment it really is a disaster, not only for Australia. The situation or danger in the future won't go away there will have to be massive investment in fire fighting both in man power and equipment, especially dousing aircraft.

[giddyup]

7 hours ago, thaibeachlovers said:

 

Will people even be permitted to rebuild in such areas ( I hope not, else we see similar in years to come ).

 

Where do you suggest they relocate to, Alice Springs? Bushfires are a fact of life, in Australia. California, Spain and many other places. You are never going to stop people building, one, in an area they love, and two, an area where land is affordable. Not everyone can afford to live in Double Bay.

[GreasyFingers]

6 hours ago, Enoon said:

 

All set up and ready to go: Nauru, Manus.

 

 

Are you offering to go and let the fire victims use your place. DH

[jaiyen]

Scott Morrison is thinking like a Thai ! " Dont let the dangerous bushfires deter you from coming to Australia for your holiday"  Yeah, right.  Who would want to go to Sydney or Gold Coast right now ?

[bristolboy]

4 minutes ago, jaiyen said:

Scott Morrison is thinking like a Thai ! " Dont let the dangerous bushfires deter you from coming to Australia for your holiday"  Yeah, right.  Who would want to go to Sydney or Gold Coast right now ?

Fire worshippers?

[White Christmas13]

4 hours ago, soalbundy said:

National disasters are usually good for the economy, especially earthquakes, fires should be no different, everything has to be replaced, for the environment it really is a disaster, not only for Australia. The situation or danger in the future won't go away there will have to be massive investment in fire fighting both in man power and equipment, especially dousing aircraft.

Not to good for the animals 1 billion lost

[White Christmas13]

7 minutes ago, jaiyen said:

Scott Morrison is thinking like a Thai ! " Dont let the dangerous bushfires deter you from coming to Australia for your holiday"  Yeah, right.  Who would want to go to Sydney or Gold Coast right now ?

me

[mfd101]

Several comments: (1) As SoalBundy suggests, GDP (as measured!) increases after a major disaster as rebuilding takes place. This was the experience of the NZ economy in the 2 years following the Christchurch earthquake in 2009 or thereabouts. The point is that 'GDP' measures activity (eg drugs trafficking), not useful outputs. The notion that GDP will 'suffer' as a result of the fires is misguided (2) There is consensus in Oz, except of course with the Greens, that this particular inferno, with multiple separate fires joining up, is a result of buildup of ground materials over years as State governments, hounded by Greens & the usual State government incompetence, have failed to do the cold weather backburns (rubbish clearance) that are necessary in the Oz climate if major fires are to be avoided (3) Some 190 people have so far been arrested and charged with lighting fires (mostly deliberately, all male, some from sheer stupidity) in total fire-ban weather (4) People have criticized the Federal government for slowness to act, but the Feds are hamstrung in doing much until State governments ask for assistance, rural firefighting being a State & Territory function. Calling out the ADF is a complex process, surrounded by legal & constitutional safeguards, and again requiring State government request. In the case of NSW, the State government continues for reasons unknown (at least by me) to refuse federal assistance (5) A major problem for many years has been the steady emptying-out of rural Oz as young people leave for the Big Smoke. Eucalypt forest fires need to be controlled very quickly before they move along and become uncontrollable. This requires people with relevant experience living not too far away. Such people are now increasingly rare.

Edited January 9, 2020 by mfd101