Dust storm blankets Sydney as drought bites

By Michael Perry SYDNEY (Reuters) – A huge outback dust storm swept eastern Australia and blanketed Sydney on Wednesday, disrupting transport, forcing people indoors and stripping thousands of tonnes of valuable farmland topsoil. The dust blacked out the outback town of Broken Hill on Tuesday, forcing a zinc mine to shut down, and swept 1,167 km (725 miles) east to shroud Sydney in a red glow on Wednesday. By noon on Wednesday the storm, carrying an estimated 5 million tonnes of dust, had spread to the southern part of Australia’s tropical state of Queensland. Dust storms in Australia are not uncommon but are usually restricted to the inland. Occasionally, during widespread drought, dust storms reach coastal areas. Australia is the driest inhabited continent and only Antarctica is drier. Australia is battling one of its worst droughts and weather officials say an El Nino is slowly developing in the Pacific which will mean drier conditions for eastern states. … The Bureau of Meteorology said a big cold front in New South Wales caused severe thunderstorms and gale-force winds, which whipped up the dust from the inland and spread it across Australia’s most populous state. Winds of more than 100 km per hour also fanned bushfires in the state. “This is unprecedented. We are seeing earth, wind and fire together,” said Dick Whitaker from The Weather Channel. … NSW holds its breath as dust descends
At least 250 people across New South Wales have called 000 with breathing problems after choking dust storms blanketed greater Sydney, the Hunter Valley and vast swathes of the rest of the state overnight. Sydney has been the hardest hit, with 95 calls made since midnight, with the rest of the alerts coming from the state’s west, south and north. Doctors are warning people from vulnerable groups to stay inside until conditions ease and paramedics say they are expecting more call-outs. … Karen from Dulwich Hill, in Sydney’s inner west, says she woke up to find the red dust had covered her floors and birds had been blown out of their nests. “It did feel like Armageddon because when I was in the kitchen looking out the skylight, there was this red, red glow coming through,” she said. … Another ABC Online contributor wrote in: “Red. Dusty. Making hard to breath… There are baby birds dead in our backyard. And our cat’s gone missing.” Another listener says her lakeside vista has been replaced by a desert view. Others have commented on how birds are struggling to cope with the haze, with some “falling out of the sky”. …