Australians Warned To Prepare For Fires, Cyclones, Floods During High-risk Season

CANBERRA, Sept 3 (Bernama-Xinhua) -- Australians have been told to prepare for possible cyclones, storms, fires and flooding during the upcoming high-risk weather season.

Minister for Emergency Management Jenny McAllister on Tuesday said the federal government is preparing for the worst-case disaster scenarios as the nation heads into warmer months of the year.

She said Australians need to be thinking about a range of perils in the high-risk weather season, which traditionally runs from October through April.

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"Fire is one of them. But we are, of course, thinking about the cyclone season and we're thinking about the risk of severe storms like some of the rain and flooding that we've seen in recent days," Xinhua quoted McAllister as telling the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) radio.

"All of the information in front of us tells us we can expect severe weather to become more frequent and more intense in the coming years as a consequence of a changing climate. And so we do need to start preparing ourselves for that reality as a community."

Over 100,000 properties lost electricity as destructive winds and heavy rainfall hit Australia's southeast in late August and early September.

Two people were killed by falling trees, one each in the states of New South Wales and Victoria, and towns were evacuated in the island state of Tasmania due to major flooding.

McAllister said on Tuesday that staff from the National Situation Room -- the government's crisis management and coordination facility -- are currently engaged in briefings with authorities from states and territories in advance of the high-risk season.

The federal government will convene the second annual National Preparedness Summit in Canberra on Sept 18-19 where government, industry and non-government organisations will be brought together to better prepare for disaster scenarios.

-- BERNAMA-XINHUA