Disaster alarm in Australia: thousands without electricity for floods!

Disaster alarm in Australia: thousands without electricity for floods!

in the southeast of Australia, especially in New South Wales, the devastation of the latest floods is still noticeable. Thousands of people are without electricity, and up to 10,000 buildings were damaged by the violent precipitation, which makes the situation in the affected regions extremely critical. Around 50,000 inhabitants are cut off from the outside world, while rescue workers work tirelessly to supply isolated people through land, water and air. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese had to cancel a planned visit to Taree due to the difficult access conditions.

The flood warnings and evacuation requests remain after five fatalities have been complained about since the beginning of the flood events. A man's body was recovered in Taree, which tragically increased the number of victims. The meteorological conditions are also worrying: in just three days in northern New South Wales, as much rain fell as it was normally in half a year. The rivers stepped over the banks and flooded numerous towns. Scientists warn that climate change can lead to more frequent and more violent extreme weather events.

evacuations and rescue actions

In the past few days, more and more areas have had to be evacuated, with some people waiting for roofs for rescue. Over 48,000 inhabitants in several regions are cut off from the outside world. The rescue campaigns are enormous, with over 1,600 helpers in use to free people from flood areas. Dramatic scenes show how people with helicopters and boats are saved by roofs. The authorities continuously inform the population about radio, television and social media about evacuation orders.

particularly affected places such as Taree, in the Hunter Valley wine region, and Wingham on the Mid North Coast fight with the catastrophic consequences of the floods. The Manning River has reached a record height of over six meters and thus exceeded the 1929 maximum. However, the authorities fear further rise in water through new precipitation, while meteorologists warn of further violent rainfall. Life -threatening floods of falls are also a serious risk in some regions.

climate change as a trigger of extreme weather

The current situation in Australia is classified as a consequence of special meteorological conditions, including La Niña and climate change. A new report by the world climate shows that the surface temperature of the earth increases faster than ever in the past 2000 years. Extreme weather events such as heavy rain and floods increase through the ear heating. Human activities are seen as the main cause of these changes. As a result, such extreme weather events will occur more frequently in the future.

experts emphasize the need to take measures against the climate crisis in order to limit the ear heating to a maximum of 1.5 degrees Celsius and to reduce greenhouse gas emissions faster. This includes the expansion of renewable energies, the faster exit from fossil energies and the improvement of flood protection through ecological solutions such as the renaturation of water and recovery of natural flooding areas.

The recent events in Australia are not only a local disaster, but also a hard wake -up call to the international community, to take the challenges of climate change more seriously and to take effective measures to reduce extreme weather events.

For more information on the disaster events in Australia, read the reports of vienna.at , Tagesschau and wwf .