After fire, some Australian towns are getting ready for floods.
There are currently fires in the Gippsland region of Victoria and the South Coast of New South Wales. These areas were also affected by bushfires four years ago.
The rain is giving us a break, but it’s also causing flood warnings.
The country has been severely affected by one disaster after another in recent years due to climate change.
This is one of the reasons why my government. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said that he is committed to taking action to address climate change.
Many fires are happening in Australia right now, and this year’s fire season is expected to be very dangerous.
In Gippsland, a countryside area in the south-east of Victoria, many firefighters have been working hard for a few days to fight against two dangerous fires. These fires have caused people to leave their homes and have destroyed at least one house.
The authorities in New South Wales (NSW) have said that a few houses were burned down by a fire in the Bega Valley on Tuesday.
In both states, the fires have burned around 25,000 hectares (or 250 square kilometers) of land. This is roughly five times bigger than Manhattan Island.
However, a big area of cold air is causing a lot of rain in the south-east part of Australia on Wednesday. The authorities are advising people to get ready for possible floods caused by sudden heavy rain and overflow of rivers.
The towns in the Gippsland region that were in danger from the fires are now in danger because they might get isolated by the flood waters.
“Do not try to go through those deep flood waters while driving. It could be the final choice you ever make,” Victoria’s State Emergency Services chief officer Tim Wiebusch cautioned residents on Tuesday.
In New South Wales, it has rained on the areas affected by fires, but the main concern for flooding is farther away from the coast. In other parts of the state, there is a high risk of fires because it is very hot, dry, and windy. As a result, there are total fire bans in some areas.
Australia has had several big problems in the last few years – very long periods without rain, massive fires in the forests, years of unusually high flooding, and the Great Barrier Reef getting damaged multiple times.
The latest report from the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change warns that urgent action is needed to stop climate change, or else we will face more and worse disasters in the future.