Plan B Forum

Australian police are searching fire-ravaged towns in southern Tasmania looking for 100 unaccounted people.





Tasmania's police commissioner said he feared lives may have been lost in the wildfires which swept through parts of the island in recent days.

Almost 3,000 people have been evacuated from their homes, many stranded in emergency shelters.

On Friday, Tasmania experienced its peak temperature since records began with levels hitting 41.8C.



The national weather bureau has warned extremely hot conditions are expected across much of the country next week.

Acting Tasmania Police Commissioner Scott Tilyard said about 100 remained unaccounted for.

"That's not to say that those people necessarily have come to any harm, but obviously we can't totally eliminate that until we've had confirmed contact with those individuals," Mr Tilyard said.

He said the crews, whose numbers have been swelled by relief teams from mainland Australia, were expecting to find "one or more" people who had perished in the fires.

More than 40 fires are still burning. On Sunday, firefighters issued an emergency warning for residents of Taranna, 29 miles (47km) east of the state capital, Hobart, where a fire has been burning for more than three days.

Prime Minister Julia Gillard is due to tour Dunalley on Monday, where more than 65 homes, the police station and a school have been destroyed in the small town, 56km east of Hobart.

The BBC's Nick Bryant, in Sydney, says large swathes of south-east Australia are suffering from the worst fire conditions since the Black Saturday disaster almost four years ago, when 173 people in rural Victoria lost their lives.

He says there has been a combination of a record-breaking heatwave, high winds and drought, with Tasmania by far the worst hit.

Gob wrote:

"...

He says there has been a combination of a record-breaking heatwave, high winds and drought, with Tasmania by far the worst hit.

ACT Emergency Services Agency A/g Commissioner Tony Graham has declared a Total Fire Ban for the whole of the ACT under Section 114 of the Emergencies Act 2004 from:

12:00am January 8, 2013 to 23:59pm January 8, 2013.

The Bureau of Meteorology is forecasting a very hot and windy day with a forecast top temperature of 38 degrees.

The forecast Fire Danger Rating for tomorrow in the ACT is predicted to be EXTREME.

The community is urged to report any smoke or fire sightings immediately to Emergency Triple Zero (000).

If a fire starts at the forecast fire danger level of EXTREME it may be uncontrollable, unpredictable and fast moving flames will be higher than roof tops.

There is a very high likelihood that people in the path of the fire will be injured or die. Many homes and businesses will be destroyed.

Only well prepared, well constructed and actively defended houses are likely to offer safety during a fire.

Thousands of embers will be blown around.

Spot fires will move quickly and come from many directions, up to 6 km ahead of the fire.

For your survival leaving is the best option. You should relocate to the location identified in your Bushfire Survival Plan.

The ESA advises you to make sure you know where you will get more information and monitor the situation for any changes. You can do this through local ACT media outlets, the ESA website www.esa.act.gov.au, the ESA Twitter and Facebook accounts or by calling Canberra Connect on 13 22 81.

To find out more about Total Fire Bans log on to the ACT Emergency Services Agency website www.esa.act.gov.au or call Canberra Connect on 13 22 81.

Territory and Municipal Services wishes to advise that due to a total fire ban, which is in place tomorrow (Tuesday 8 January 2013), the following nature reserves and roads will be closed:

– Tidbinbilla Nature Reserve (the Visitor Centre will remain open);

– selected roads within Namadgi National Park including Apollo Road, Orroral Road, Old Mill Road, Warks Road, Mount Franklin Road at Piccadilly Circus, and the Corin Dam Road (the

– Namadgi Visitor Centre will remain open);

– Googong Foreshores;

– Lower Molonglo River Corridor; and

– Mulligans Flat Woodlands Sanctuary.

Note that the Boboyan Road and Brindabella Road remain open to through traffic.

Additionally Namadgi National Park, Tidbinbilla Nature Reserve, Googong Foreshores as well as Kowen Forest will remain closed from tomorrow until 7 am Saturday 12 January 2013 in the interests of public safety.


UPDATE 07/01/13 14:28: The NSW RFS website now has “CATASTROPHIC” (the new one worse than EXTREME) fire danger warnings for the following regions tomorrow:

– Illawarra/Shoalhaven,

– Southern Ranges,

Global warming is turning the volume of extreme weather up, Spinal-Tap-style, to 11.



The temperature forecast for next Monday by Australia's Bureau of Meteorology is so unprecedented - over 52C - that it has had to add a new colour to the top of its scale, a suitably incandescent purple.

Australia's highest recorded temperature is 50.7C, set in January 1960 in South Australia. The record for the hottest average day across the nation was set on Monday, at 40.3C, exceeding a 40-year-old record. "What makes this event quite exceptional is how widespread and intense it's been," said Aaron Coutts-Smith, the weather bureau's climate services manager. "We have been breaking records across all states and territories in Australia over the course of the event so far." Wildfires are raging across New South Wales and Tasmania.

Australia's prime minister Julia Gillard said: "Whilst you would not put any one event down to climate change, weather doesn't work like that, we do know over time that as a result of climate change we are going to see more extreme weather events and conditions."

These stunning pictures of five young children and their grandmother huddled together under a jetty in the Tasmanian town of Dunalley were captured by their grandfather Tim Holmes. The family was forced to stay in the water for several hours as homes around them were razed to the ground. The pictures, taken on 4 January have just been released

Yesterday Moomba in the far northeast of South Australia recorded a maximum temperature of 49.6 degrees, (120.2 f) which makes it the highest temperature recorded in Australia in 15 years.
The last time a higher temperature was recorded was in February 1998, in the Western Australian Pilbara, where Nyang reached 49.8 degrees.

Moomba's 49.6 degrees is also the highest temperature recorded in SA since Oodnadatta reached 50.3 degrees in January 1960.

Australia's record is held by Oodnadatta, 50.7 degrees, also in January 1960.



Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/environment/weath ... z2Ho92F7mU

Top research facility ... fire rages towards the Siding Spring Observatory. Photo: NSW Rural Fire Service

PARTS of Australia's biggest observatory, at Siding Spring, west of Coonabarabran, were destroyed by a ''fast moving, large and dangerous'' bushfire on Sunday night, as the fire emergency continued across large areas of NSW.

Two homes also burned down as the fire pushed through Warrumbungle National Park after a sudden change in the wind.

The extent of the damage at the observatory, which holds the Anglo-Australian Telescope - the nation's biggest - will not be known until Monday morning. The Australian National University, which operates the site, said all staff had made it to safety.

Evacuations took place along a four-kilometre fire front on Sunday night, with people seeking refuge in Coonabarabran as huge columns of smoke filled the sky.

''It looked like an atom bomb the way it went up,'' said Susan Armstrong, who owns a property to the west of the fire. Her husband, Brian, had been fighting the blaze, which started on Saturday, but his crew had to pull back.

''They got sent home. It was far too dangerous,'' Mrs Armstrong said. ''He said the spot fires and how quickly it all moved was quite scary.''

Rural Fire Service Superintendent Matt Inwood said fire crews were battling fierce conditions.

''At the moment it is 36 degrees and the south-westerly winds are gusting at 63km/h,'' he said. ''Strong winds are making fighting the fire very challenging because it moves very quickly.

''It's a large, fast-moving fire, so all of the properties in that area are in great danger,'' Superintendent Inwood said. ''There are another 12 properties in the area and they were all sent alert telephone messages to evacuate.''

He said there were 48 firefighters tackling the fire and 10 RFS aircraft were also working to extinguish it.

Brian Schmidt, a Nobel laureate and celebrated ANU astronomer, posted a statement online about the obervatory's fate.

''I have had what has to be a quintessential experience of the current era - watching a firefront pass through Siding Spring Observatory live via the internet, using all of the remote observing information we have on various telescopes, while getting simultaneous news and views via Twitter,'' Professor Schmidt said.

''I fear a lot of damage has been done … even if not the wholesale destruction we faced in 2003 at Mount Stromlo Observatory. Tomorrow will tell and then will come the long, slow process of recovery.''


Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/environment/weath ... z2HtZB5Hr2