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Australia competes to evacuate stranded as wildfires breathe

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MELBOURNE / SYDNEY – Australian officials used a loan Monday from fierce fires that killed 24 people in the southeast of the country to compete to reopen blocked roads and evacuate people who were stranded for days.

A second day of light rain and cold winds brought relief from the flames triggered by heat waves that passed through the two states over the weekend, but officials warned that dangerous weather conditions were expected to return later in the week.

“There is no room for complacency,” New South Wales Prime Minister Gladys Berejiklian told reporters Monday morning. Two people went missing after about 130 fires continued to burn in the state, though not in a high state of alarm.

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Authorities redoubled their efforts Monday to secure supplies and repatriate thousands of people who have been stranded by fire lines in coastal cities for several days.

“This morning is about recovery, making sure people who are displaced have somewhere safe (to go) and making sure we have the resources to build a presence on the ground to clear the roads, clear where the rubble exists, “Berejiklian said.

Dean Linton, a resident of Jindabyne in the Snowy Mountains, used the break from an imminent threat to his city to visit his wife and four children who had been evacuated to Sydney. He also used the 870-mile journey to capture a fire pump and generator to help him protect the family home.

“There is a lot of fuel in that national park; it would only take a lightning strike,” Linton told Reuters.

The season of fires began earlier than normal this year after a three-year drought that has left much of the country moist and vulnerable to fires. More than 5 million hectares of land have been destroyed.

Below are the highlights of what’s happening across Australia:

* There were no urgent warnings in the fire-ravaged states on Monday following the change in weather. The State of Victoria had 25 “watch and act” warnings and South Australia had a “watch and act” notice. In NSW, all fires were again at the “tips” level, the lowest level of alarm, NSW Rural Fire Service Commissioner Shane Fitzsimmons said.

* Fire officials said light rain that has brought some relief also posed challenges to backpacking efforts to reduce fuel for future fires and bring existing fires under control.

* At Batemans Bay on the south coast of New South Wales, electricity was expected to remain out for a few more days. Further south in Bermagui, food and fuel were running out, the Australian Broadcasting Corp. reported.

* Military helicopters would evacuate more people, including older and younger children, from Mallacoota on Monday. More than a thousand people were evacuated from the state of Victoria by two naval vessels on Friday.

* Insurers have received 5,850 fire-related claims in NSW, Victoria, South Australia and Queensland since the Insurance Council declared a fiery disaster on November 8.

* Bush fire losses are estimated at $ 375m ($ 260m) since November, with insured property losses at a further $ 56m in September and October, the Insurance Council said. The figures do not include properties lost during the past 24 to 36 hours in areas such as the southern mountains of NSW and the southern coast.

* Accommodation provider Aspen Group said Monday it expects a $ 500,000 hit on both revenue and net operating income from fires.

* Canberra was running out of masks with the nation’s capital covered in smoke, ACT emergency services said. The National Gallery of Australia said it was closed to protect visitors and artworks. The government department responsible for coordinating Australia’s response to disaster and emergency management also closed its doors due to poor air quality.

* Army personnel plan to begin digging graves to bury more than one hundred thousand sheep and cattle killed in the fires.

* Actor Russell Crowe bypassed Hollywood’s Golden Globes ceremony, where he won an award for playing former Fox News chief executive Roger Ailes in the television series “Loudest Room in the Room.” Presenter Jennifer Aniston said Crowe stayed in Australia to protect his family from fires and read the remarks he had prepared where he said the fires were “based on climate change”.

* Prime Minister Scott Morrison continued to face criticism for his handling of the crisis. “Poor political judgment is one thing. Competence is another thing altogether. This is the area of ​​political risk that Scott Morrison wants to avoid dealing with the fire crisis, “Rupert Murdoch ‘The Australian, a government supporter, said in an article by the national affairs editor of the newspaper on Monday.

* State officials thanked people for donations of clothes and food, but said the cash was more helpful.

* 41 US firefighters are in Victoria with 70 more from Canada and the United States expected to join on January 8, the Victoria Country Fire Authority said on Twitter.

($ 1 = Australian $ 1,4399)

(Reporting by Sonali Paul and Jonathan Barrett; Additional reporting by Paulina Duran and Swati Pandey in Sydney and Lisa Richwine in Los Angeles; editing by Jonathan Oatis and Jane Wardell)

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