While Queensland firefighters fight 140 fires, many of which are threatening towns in central and northern Queensland, an east coast low is dumping record amounts of rain on central New South Wales.
Fires
Hundreds of firefighters are fighting fires in 40C temperatures across the state, towns close to the fires include Deepwater and Baffle Creek. The larger towns that would be recognised by overseas observers are Rockhampton, Townsville and Cairns. There has been significant building loss, but no reported life lost at this time. Severe weather patterns will continue for the rest of the week.
Floods
State Emergency Service crews and firefighters in Sydney are recovering from storms on Wednesday that dropped 150mm in one hour and had winds of up to 90Km/hr, this along with the lightning brought the city to a standstill and uprooted many large trees. Crews attended over 200 homes with their roofs torn off and many rescues from people stranded by flood water. The airport was closed and public transport disrupted.
Further details of the devastation can be found and monitored on the following link; www.abc.net.au/news
