Sydney (Australia), February 14 (EFE).- Australian authorities reported this Wednesday the death of a farmer as a result of the extreme weather that hit the southern state of Victoria yesterday, while they evaluate the damage caused by forest fires in the National Park. Grampians, northwest of Melbourne.
Preliminary information suggests that a 50-year-old man, who was driving his tractor during the storm in the rural town of Mirboo North (about 150 kilometers east of Melbourne), “was hit by flying debris,” the commissioner explained today. of Victoria State Emergency Management, Rick Nugent.
The extreme weather marked by temperatures of almost 40 degrees was accompanied yesterday by storms and strong winds of more than 120 kilometers per hour, which also downed trees and left more than half a million homes and businesses without electricity in the state, the second most Australian town.
This Wednesday, more than 220,000 homes and businesses remain without power, according to state authorities.
The extreme weather was also conducive to starting and fueling several forest fires in Victoria, including those in the communities of Stapylton and Pomonal, located in the Grampians National Park, about 250 kilometers northwest of the regional capital Melbourne.
In Pomonal, where several homes are presumed to have burned, authorities are today assessing the damage caused by the fires, Nugent said at a press conference in Melbourne, without giving figures, although they believe that the flames did not affect the Stapylton properties.
In other towns in Victoria, residents and authorities carry out cleaning tasks and account for the damage left, especially by the felling of trees, which have blocked several roads.
The extreme weather of recent days reminded Australians of the fires of the so-called ‘Black Summer’ of 2019-20, which claimed the lives of 33 people on the country’s east coast, burned some 3,000 homes and burned some 180,000 square kilometers of land. lands.
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“There is talk of climate change and more frequent and extreme weather events. This unfortunately means that we are going to see more things like this,” Victorian Energy Minister Lily D’Ambrosio remarked today.
The worst fires experienced in the oceanic country in recent decades occurred in early February 2009 in Victoria, where they caused 173 deaths and 414 injuries, while burning an area of 4,500 square kilometers.
The fire season in Australia, one of the largest polluters per capita on the planet and one of the countries most vulnerable to the climate crisis, varies depending on the area and weather conditions, although they are generally recorded in the southern summer, between the months of December and March.
(c) EFE Agency
2024-02-14 03:56:54
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