Australia in the fury of floods with homes in Melbourne flooded, forecast says rivers will remain dangerously high for days

Melbourne happens to be the second-most populous city of Australia. Its population is around 5 million. The authorities advised some residents to move out of the suburb in northwest of Melbourne. There are similar instructions for hundreds in the Victoria state cities of Benalla and Wedderburn. Hundreds of homes in Victoria were flooded and many more remain isolated by floodwater. In the words of Victoria Premier Daniel Andrews - most of the state was experiencing a “very, very, significant rainfall event and it comes, of course, with the ground completely sodden.” The forecast of the Met department is of more rain throughout the next six-to-eight week period. Obviously, people will have to endure the situation for some more time. Daniel Andrews also mentioned about many homes without power. Homes Inundated by Swollen Rivers in Australian Floods. The State Emergency Service carried out more than 100 flood rescues in Victoria in the past 48 hours.

Last month the Bureau of Meteorology declared that a La Niña weather pattern, usually associated with above-average rainfall in eastern Australia, was underway in the Pacific. It said that the La Niña event may peak during the current Southern Hemisphere spring and return to neutral conditions early next year. Incidentally, La Niña is the cooler flip side of the better-known drying El Niño pattern. It is the third La Niña since 2019 when Australia became the hottest and driest year on record. That year witnessed wildfires fueled by drought that directly or indirectly led to the death of hundreds of people, destruction of hundreds of homes and loss of millions of acres of woods, farmland and city fringes. Sydney, the capital of New South Wales and the largest city of Australia beat its 1950 record last week to make 2022 its wettest-ever year.

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53-year-old British woman flew 13000-mile in 1942 bi-plane from Farnborough to Sydney

#TraceyCurtisTaylor #AmyJohnson #Sydney #Farnborough Age is no problem for 53-year-old Tracey Curtis-Taylor, a British adventurer, who flew 13,000-miles in a 1942 bi-plane from Farnborough to Sydney - it was a solo flight in a vintage open-cockpit biplane. She calls herself 'Bird in a biplane' and had set off from Farnborough in October last year.
This has been reported in news.sky.com dated 9 January 2016.

In the course of her journey, she has crossed 23 countries and made 50 refueling stops in her 1942 Boeing Stearman Spirit of Artemis aircraft. Her route was over Europe and the Mediterranean to Jordan, over the Arabian desert, across the Gulf of Oman to Pakistan, India and across Asia before reaching Australia.
Once in Australia, she stopped at Darwin, Tennant Creek, Alice Springs, the famous Uluru in the Northern Territory and Broken Hill in New South Wales and finally Sydney airport.
Ms Curtis-Taylor was following the path taken by of Amy Johnson, the British pilot who became the first woman to fly solo from Britain to Australia in 1930.

(Image courtesy wikimediacommons.org

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Tornado with wind speeds of 213 Kmph struck Sydney

A tornado with wind speeds of 213 Kmph struck and left behind a trail of destruction in southern Sydney - many people suffered minor injuries and many homes and businesses without roofs. It was a freak storm and it hit Kurnell in the city's south just after 12.30pm and moved north, while two other storm cells have battered the Blue Mountains and Hawkesbury/Central Coast regions.
This has been reported in nzherald.co.nz dated 17 December 2015.

Kurnell was the worst hit with winds reaching up to 213km/h and "golf ball-size hail" fell on St Andrew's Anglican Church accompanied by thunder and lightning.
The desalination plant in Kurnell had to be evacuated after it sustained significant damage and workers were also cleared out of the Caltex refinery as a safety precaution. Simultaneously, Sydney Airport closely monitored the storm activity and advised passengers to check out flight details because Qantas delayed several flights and cancelled some.
Moreover, the main road to Kurnell, Captain Cook Drive, was closed and two trucks were blown over by the wind on Chisholm Road - there were no injuries.

(Image courtesy wikimediacommons.org)

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#ISIS #jihadist #tonyabbott #sydney #terrorism Australia is tackling the threat of ISIS in a different way. It is preventing would-be jihadists from leaving the country and feels it is a better method to fight terrorism. Its anti-terrorism cell has succeeded in preventing 230 suspected jihadis from departing Australian airports for the Middle East this month. Three of them were teenage boys.
These two boys were from Sydney and were intercepted at Sydney International Airport on March 8 as they attempted to board a flight for Turkey without their parents' knowledge. The boys have, since, been handed over to their parents. This has been reported in zeenews.india.com dated 25 March 2015.

Prime Minister Tony Abbott has revealed that his government was investing more on border security and on countering extremism. In his opinion - it is absolutely critical that the people appreciate that the death cult of ISIS is reaching out to vulnerable and impressionable young people. And in order to check this, prevention is better than cure.
Incidentally, there are media reports that the Islamic State group had posted on a social media website a step-by-step guide to help would-be jihadis leave Australia and fight with the terror group. The guide apparently offers advice on how to use an Islamic State support network and slip through security cracks.

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