Storms, bush fires rage across Australia

Advanced Search

The story appears on

Page A10

November 29, 2018

GET this page in PDF

Free for subscribers

View shopping cart

Storms, bush fires rage across Australia

Source: Agencies | 00:05 UTC+8 November 29, 2018 |

Print Edition

Torrential rain and gale force winds lashed Australia’s biggest city of Sydney yesterday causing commuter chaos, flooding streets, railway stations and homes, grounding flights and leaving hundreds of people without electricity.

One person was killed in a car crash and two police officers seriously injured when a tree fell on them as they helped a stranded driver.

Greg Transell, an office manager in Sydney’s north, said that the strong winds caused widespread disruption to the tower block office where he works.

“I started to go upstairs to see if there was any damage and next minute there was an almighty bang and it ripped panels off the roof in the warehouse,” said Transell.

Australia’s Bureau of Meteorology said Sydney got more than 100mm of rain in just a few hours, a level that the country’s most populous city would normally get through the whole of November.

“That’s the sort of rainfall you’d expect to see once every 100 years,” said Ann Farrell, the bureau’s state manager.

Sydney airport, the country’s busiest, said 130 flights had been canceled or delayed after it was forced to close two of its three runways.

“The storm is pretty intense in and around the airport,” Cait Kyann, an airport spokeswoman, said.

Ausgrid, the nation’s biggest electricity network, said the storm had cut power to 8,100 customers in Sydney and the Central Coast area.

In contrast, in Australia’s northern state of Queensland, soaring temperatures near 40 degrees Celsius and strong winds exacerbated major bushfires.

Firefighters have been battling for nearly a week to contain more than 130 fires across Queensland, and 8,000 people were ordered to evacuate the city of Gracemere, about 600km north of the state capital, Brisbane.

“These are unprecedented conditions,” said state premier Annastacia Palaszczuk.

World

About Us
|
Terms of Use
|
RSS
|
Privacy Policy
|
Contact Us
|
Shanghai Call Center: 962288
|
Tip-off hotline: 52920043

沪ICP证：沪ICP备05050403号-1
|
互联网新闻信息服务许可证：31120180004
|
网络视听许可证：0909346
|
广播电视节目制作许可证：沪字第354号
|
增值电信业务经营许可证：沪B2-20120012

Storms, bush fires rage across Australia

Email this to your friend