Australia yesterday authorized the forced evacuation of residents amid a mass exodus of tourists from fire-ravaged coastal communities, as the nation braced for a weekend heat wave expected to fan deadly bushfires.
Catastrophic blazes ripped through the southeast of the nation on New Year’s Eve, killing at least eight people and stranding holidaymakers.
New South Wales Premier Gladys Berejiklian declared a seven-day state of emergency — that allows for forced evacuations beginning today — for the third time in the nation’s most populated region this fire season.
“We don’t take these decisions lightly, but we also want to make sure we’re taking every single precaution to be prepared for what could be a horrible day on Saturday,” Berejiklian said.
It came after the New South Wales Rural Fire Service declared a “tourist leave zone” stretching about 200km from the popular holiday spot of Bateman’s Bay along the picturesque coast to neighboring Victoria state, where people are also being urged to flee.
At least 18 people are known to have died in one of Australia’s most devastating bushfire seasons yet and there are growing fears that the toll could rise dramatically, with officials in Victoria saying 17 people were missing in the state.
Visitors were being warned to leave affected areas before tomorrow, when another heat wave is expected to sweep across the nation, with gusting winds and temperatures above 40°C.
That weather would create conditions as bad as — if not worse than — on Tuesday, the deadliest day in a months-long bushfire crisis, officials said.
Many tourists and residents spent two nights isolated with no electricity or telecommunications, before authorities yesterday declared some roads safe to use.
New South Wales Minister for Transport Andrew Constance called it the “largest evacuation of people out of the region ever,” with a line of vehicles stretching along the highway toward Sydney as thousands fleed the area.
One driver said it had taken her three hours to travel just 50km.
New South Wales Rural Fire Service Deputy Commissioner Rob Rogers said that firefighters would be unable to extinguish or even control the raging blazes.
“The message is we’ve got so much fire in that area, we have no capacity to contain these fires,” he told Australian Broadcasting Corp. “We just need to make sure that people are not in front of them.”
John Steele, 73, who lives outside the southcoast town of Merimbula, said that some people were “panicking” amid warnings to evacuate.
“There’s so much misinformation on Facebook and on the Web,” he said.
Steele said that the region had been “chaotic” as fresh produce and fuel supplies ran low, but he and his wife were staying put for now.
“We’re happy to see every man and his dog leave town,” he said. “We are cautious, we have our bags packed.”
The number of homes confirmed destroyed has topped 400, with that figure expected to rise as firefighters reach communities still isolated by the flames.
Two Royal Australian Navy ships arrived in Mallacoota — where people huddled on the foreshore for hours on New Year’s Eve as a fire bore down on the remote town — to begin evacuating up to 4,000 people in an operation that could take weeks, officials said.
Victoria Joint Bushfire Task Force Commander Doug Laidlaw said that the first evacuees would be moved onto the vessels this morning, with children, the sick and elderly taking priority.
“If we need to reset and [return] again, weather permitting, that is exactly what will happen,” Laidlaw said.
In his first news conference since the latest blazes flared, Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison yesterday said that “every absolute effort” was being made to assist affected communities.
“The best way to respond is the way that Australians have always responded to these events, and that is to put our confidence in those who are fighting these fires,” he said, while defending the nation’s climate policies as “sensible.”
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