Heavy rain, floods lash eastern Australia, help with fires
Source: AP
CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — Heavy rains lashed parts of the wildfire and drought-stricken Australian east coast on Friday, bringing some flooding in Sydney and relief to firefighters still dealing with dozens of blazes in New South Wales.
New South Wales is the state hardest hit by wildfires that have killed at least 33 and destroyed more than 3,000 homes in an unprecedented fire season that began late in a record-dry 2019.
New South Wales Rural Fire Service Commissioner Shane Fitzsimmons said he was optimistic the rain will help extinguish some blazes over the coming days. He said there were still 42 fires burning in the state, with 17 of those not contained.
“The rain is good for business and farms as well as being really good for quenching some of these fires we’ve been dealing with for many, many months,” he said.
A couple shelter under an umbrellas as rain falls in Sydney, Friday, Feb. 7, 2020, while the Bureau of Meteorology issued severe weather warning along the New South Wales state coast. The rain comes as a slight relief for some areas dealing with wildfires that devastated large swathes of land across the state over the last several months. (AP Photo/Rick Rycroft)
Read more: https://apnews.com/a60a7e36fa66c38ef65c4fa7bf60d9a5
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