Once-in-century Australian heatwave claims homes, lives
MELBOURNE, (AFP)
Australia’s second-largest city Melbourne ground to a halt Saturday,
crippled by a once-in-a-century heatwave that has claimed almost 30
lives and razed at least 17 homes.
Wildfires raged through the southeastern state of Victoria, where
authorities said flames had come dangerously close to major electricity
transmission lines which supplied power to Melbourne on Saturday.
More than 500,000 homes and businesses in Melbourne were left without
power on Friday night after an electrical substation exploded in the
heat, bringing the city to a standstill. Temperatures in Victoria topped
43 degrees Celsius (109 Fahrenheit) for a record-breaking third
consecutive day on Friday, when 10 homes and a timber plantation were
destroyed in a 6,500 hectare (16,000 acre) blaze. The heat was blamed
for a spike in sudden deaths in the neighbouring state of South
Australia, which was in the grip of its hottest weather since 1908.
At least 22 people died in the South Australia capital, Adelaide, on
Friday, said the state’s health minister John Hill. Most were older than
70 and had likely just “succumbed to the heat,” he said. By Saturday
morning the state’s ambulance service said it had recorded another six
deaths in a period of just three hours and expected to at least equal
Friday’s count by the day’s end. In Melbourne, the power cut meant all
trains were cancelled, city buildings were evacuated, and rescue crews
were called in to free workers trapped in office tower elevators.
Patients were turned away from overstretched hospitals running on
reserve generator power.
“The line ... literally exploded in the heat, and I don’t know if
anyone could ever have prevented that from occurring,” Victoria’s
premier John Brumby told Sky News.
“We’re in unchartered waters, unprecedented conditions, and with the
week and hot weather (we’ve had) some of these systems have never been
designed to operate in 44 to 45 degree heat,” he said. The unrelenting
heat is forecast to continue for the next seven days, according to
Australia’s Bureau of Meteorology. Temperatures have topped 48 degrees
in country areas, the bureau said.
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