Extinguished Forest And Land Fires, Australia Is Now Flooded

Floods on main roads of Queensland city (Twitter @ Quefire & emergancy)

JAKARTA - The heavy rain that the Australian population has been waiting for to extinguish forest and land fires has finally fallen. It's just that the intensity of the rain that is too heavy has actually caused flooding in a number of areas of the kangaroo country.

Quoting from The Guardian, areas that were flooded due to rainfall occurred in the Victoria, New South Wales, and Queensland regions. Indeed, the area is also affected by forest and land fires.

The rainfall was too heavy, making Queensland's main roads have to be flooded. Stagnant water has also resulted in power outages in parts of New South Wales. Despite the floods, residents there are actually grateful because the rain has extinguished forest and land fires that have occurred in recent weeks.

The state of Queensland has the driest rainfall Australia has experienced in recent months. Several main roads were closed and many residential areas were flooded, but no fatalities or injuries were reported.

⚠️ ⛈️WARNING UPDATE: Dangerous and life threatening flash flooding is likely occurring with very dangerous thunderstorms impacting the Gold Coast. 145mm Recorded in 2 hours at Monterey Keys. Warnings: https://t.co/FBmpsInT9o pic.twitter.com/1M7PUW4h0N

- Bureau of Meteorology, Queensland (@BOM_Qld) January 17, 2020

The Queensland Fire and Emergency Service advises the public to be aware of fallen trees and power lines and not to drive or walk through floodwaters.

"Heavy and heavy rains have subsided, but rain and storms are still possible throughout the weekend. Be careful on the road if it floods, forget it," wrote the Queensland Meteorological Agency via Twitter, quoted by the BBC, Saturday, January 18, 2020.

Apart from flooding, too heavy rainfall also raises other concerns such as landslides. This is natural because the plains in New South Wales are dry and rarely rainy.

So it is feared that landslides could occur in the southeastern part of Australia. Not to mention the absence of natural water retention, because many large trees were burned.

Strong wind warnings have also been issued in other parts of Australia such as Byron, Illawarra and the Batemans Coast. In addition, flood warnings from the Orara and Bellinger Rivers have also been issued so that people will be more careful when passing through the area.

The Meteorological Agency in Victoria also reported storms in most of the central and eastern states on Saturday.

"Thunderstorms can be severe due to high rainfall in the northeast of the state. Destructive winds and heavy hail are a small risk," says the Bureau of Meteorology in Victoria.