More than 10,000 flee “catastrophic” bushfires in northern Australia as flash floods from historic rains kill two in Sydney – “This is unprecedented, uncharted”

By Jonathan Pearlman
28 November 2018
SYDNEY, Australia (The Telegraph) – Authorities ordered more than 10,000 people to flee from “catastrophic” wildfires moving across north-east Australia, as heavy rains in the south-east caused flooding that left at least two people dead.
In the state of Queensland, a heatwave and strong winds fuelled a massive fire that destroyed homes and led to the evacuation of all 8,000 residents from the town of Gracemere, the first time this has happened in its 150-year history.
The fire was threatening the larger town of Rockhampton, which is about five miles away and has about 80,000 residents.
The Bureau of Meteorology declared a catastrophic fire danger in the region, the first time such a level has been applied in Queensland.
“[This is] unprecedented, uncharted, but we have a plan,” said Annastacia Palaszczuk, the state’s premier. […]Queensland Fire and Emergency Services said aerial tankers had released water on the blaze near Gracemere and helped to “suppress” it.”However, that cannot operate through the night, and in some of those areas it’s actually too dangerous to have crews in those areas,” said Katarina Carroll, the head of the agency.“We have never, ever in this state been in this situation before.” […]

As the fires continued, residents in Sydney, about 900 miles south, were cleaning up after a violent storm that caused flash flooding and turned roads into rivers. The city centre received a month’s worth of rain in two hours. […]During the two hours of heaviest downpour, parts of the city received as much as six inches of rain. “For that intensity and that duration, that’s the sort of rainfall you’d expect to occur about once every 100 years for that particular site,” said Ann Farrell, from the Bureau of Meteorology. [more]

Thousands flee ‘catastrophic’ bushfires in northern Australia as flash floods kill two in Sydney

By Eric Leister
28 November 2018
(AccuWeather) – Torrential rainfall brought a month’s worth of rainfall to parts of Sydney in only two hours on Wednesday, resulting in widespread flooding.
Meanwhile, bushfires continue to ravage parts of Queensland, where months of drought has turned the region into a tinderbox.
These sharp contrasts in the weather are just the latest extreme weather events to affect Australia.Damaging winds, a blinding dust storm and heavy mountain snow have already been recorded earlier this month in eastern Australia.Torrential downpours in Sydney brought the city to a standstill on Wednesday and resulted in at least two deaths, according to the BBC. […]Rainfall totaled 50-100 mm (2-4 inches) around the city, with most of the rain falling within a two-hour period.The Australia Bureau of Meteorology reported that it was the wettest November day in Sydney since 1984. […]There is a stark contrast in the weather farther north across Queensland. Months of drought have left the region extremely susceptible to wildfires.Strong winds associated with the storm that impacted Sydney and an ongoing heat wave has helped to fuel more than 130 bushfires across the state.The fire danger level in the state has risen to “catastrophic” for the first time in history and prompted the evacuation of thousands of people, the BBC reported. [more]

Sydney flooding, Queensland bushfires continue streak of extreme weather across Australia