Residents in flood-hit Australian towns yesterday ramped up efforts to build levees and sandbag homes ahead of more rain, although authorities said the expected storms could be milder than last week’s, bringing relief as recovery operations begin.
Forecast rainfall across Victoria state is unlikely to trigger more major flooding, although parts of Australia’s east are likely to receive up to 100mm of rain over the next five days, about one-tenth of a year’s total for some areas, the Australian Bureau of Meteorology said.
“The expected rainfall over coming days is not expected to be anywhere near as widespread or as intense or as heavy, and as a result of that we’re not expecting a return to major flooding,” bureau meteorologist Kevin Parkins said.
Photo: EPA-EFE
Flood waters are still rising around several inland towns in Australia’s two most populous states of New South Wales and Victoria, with officials urging residents to evacuate before they are cut off.
Police said a 65-year-old man was found dead in floodwaters in Victoria’s north yesterday, taking the death toll to two.
Residents in some areas, including the Victorian town of Echuca, are facing their second flooding in a week.
A dirt levee has been built in Echuca, about 250km north of Melbourne, amid warnings that the Murray River, Australia’s largest river, could breach a near 30-year high later this week.
In the nearby town of Moama, across the state border in southern New South Wales, defense force personnel teamed up with residents to sand-bag homes.
An intense weather system last week brought almost a month’s rain in two days across much of Victoria, southern New South Wales and northern parts of Tasmania, triggering flash flooding.
Forecasters say that any reprieve is likely to be temporary with a long, wet summer ahead as Australia endures a rare third consecutive La Nina weather event, typically associated with higher rainfall.
“This is a very, very long event ... these floods will continue for a number of months,” New South Wales Deputy State Emergency Services Commissioner Ken Murphy told Australian Broadcasting Corp television.
Australia has been enduring extreme weather events that some experts say are happening because of climate change. Droughts and devastating bushfires scorched the country at the end of the previous decade, while frequent floods have been wreaking havoc since early last year.
Amid fears of renewed flooding, Grain Producers Australia said this year’s harvest was “on a knife’s edge,” echoing warnings from the government about the economic costs of flooding.
GLORY FACADE: Residents are fighting the church’s plan to build a large flight of steps and a square that would entail destroying up to two blocks of homes Barcelona’s eternally unfinished Basilica de la Sagrada Familia has grown to become the world’s tallest church, but a conflict with residents threatens to delay the finish date for the monument designed more than 140 years ago. Swathed in scaffolding on a platform 54m above the ground, an enormous stone slab is being prepared to complete the cross of the central Jesus Christ tower. A huge yellow crane is to bring it up to the summit, which will stand at 172.5m and has snatched the record as the world’s tallest church from Germany’s Ulm Minster. The basilica’s peak will deliberately fall short of the
FRAYED: Strains between the US-European ties have ruptured allies’ trust in Washington, but with time, that could be rebuilt, the Michigan governor said China is providing crucial support for Russia’s aggression in Ukraine and could end the war with a phone call, US Ambassador to NATO Matthew Whitaker said. “China could call [Russian President] Vladimir Putin and end this war tomorrow and cut off his dual-purpose technologies that they’re selling,” Whitaker said during a Friday panel at the Munich Security Conference. “China could stop buying Russian oil and gas.” “You know, this war is being completely enabled by China,” the US envoy added. Beijing and Moscow have forged an even tighter partnership since the start of the war, and Russia relies on China for critical parts
Two sitting Philippine senators have been identified as “coperpetrators” in former Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte’s crimes against humanity trial at the International Criminal Court (ICC), documents released by prosecutors showed. Philippine senators Ronald Dela Rosa and Christopher Go are among eight current and former officials named in a document dated Feb. 13 and posted to the court’s Web site. ICC prosecutors have charged Duterte with three counts of crimes against humanity, alleging his involvement in at least 76 murders as part of his “war on drugs.” “Duterte and his coperpetrators shared a common plan or agreement to ‘neutralize’ alleged criminals in the Philippines
In a softly lit Shanghai bar, graduate student Helen Zhao stretched out both wrists to have her pulse taken — the first step to ordering the house special, a bespoke “health” cocktail based on traditional Chinese medicine (TCM). “TCM bars” have popped up in several cities across China, epitomizing what the country’s stressed-out, time-poor youth refer to as “punk wellness,” or “wrecking yourself while saving yourself.” At Shanghai’s Niang Qing, a TCM doctor in a white coat diagnoses customers’ physical conditions based on the pulse readings, before a mixologist crafts custom drinks incorporating the herbs and roots prescribed for their ailments.
RSS