BATEMANS BAY/MELBOURNE
Tens of thousands of holiday makers fled seaside towns on Australia’s east coast on Thursday as bushfires approached, and military ships and helicopters began rescuing thousands more trapped by the blazes.
Fuelled by soaring temperature and high winds, more than 200 fires are burning across the south-eastern states of New South Wales (NSW) and Victoria, threatening several towns.
The NSW state government declared a state of emergency, beginning on Friday, giving authorities the power to forcibly evacuate people and take control of services.
“It is hell on earth. It is the worst anybody’s ever seen,” Michelle Roberts said by telephone from the Croajingolong Cafe she owns in Mallacoota, a southeastern coastal town where 4,000 residents and visitors have been stranded on the beach since Monday night. Roberts hoped to get her 18-year-old daughter onto a naval ship, which arrived off the town on Thursday, in order to escape the fires and thick smoke engulfing the town.
The HMAS Choules is expected to make two or three voyages over the coming days, state authorities said.
Elsewhere, long queues formed outside supermarkets and petrol stations as residents and tourists sought supplies to either bunker down or escape the fires, emptying shelves of staples like bread and milk. More than 50,000 people were without power and some towns had no access to drinking water. “Everyone’s just on edge,” said Shane Flanagan, a resident of Batemans Bay on the NSW coast.
Eight people have been killed by wildfires in NSW and Victoria since Monday and 18 are missing, officials said on Thursday. Temperatures are forecast to soar above 40 degrees Celsius along the south coast on Saturday, bringing the prospect of renewed firefronts to add to the around 200 current blazes. Courtesy: REUTERS.
