A State Of Emergency Has Been Declared In NSW. Here’s What That Means
"The big thing that I’m picking up from (fire) crews, year in, year out, is their sense of despair and challenge"
It doesn’t take a genius to figure out that a state of emergency is not a good thing.
But now that one has been announced for New South Wales, what does it actually mean for the people who will be living under the declaration until Boxing Day?
By declaring a state of emergency the NSW government has transferred their power to the Rural Fire Service Commissioner, Shane Fitzsimmons. He can now direct any government agency, control the allocation of government resources, evacuate people, close roads, and order the shutdown of essential utilities like electricity, gas, oil and water.
At 10am there are 97 fires burning in NSW. 50 are not contained, 3 are at Watch and Act. 1,700 personnel are in the field. There are extremely hot conditions over the firegrounds with strong winds. Stay up to day https://t.co/2KraQWO8Td#nswrfs #nswfires pic.twitter.com/lUCaJOjRff
— NSW RFS (@NSWRFS) December 18, 2019
It’s the second time in just over a month that NSW has declared a state of emergency. The last one before that was in October 2013.
Keep Your Sunscreen Handy
Australia has already sweated through its hottest day on record this week, but more extreme temperatures and wind are expected to come.
— manjot (@manjotjawanda) December 18, 2019
“I think the big thing that I’m picking up from crews, year in, year out, is their sense of despair and challenge because you’ve got such a dry landscape, the structure of the landscape is resulting in fires starting so easily and spreading so very quickly, and proving to be extremely difficult to suppress and contain,” the NSW RFS commissioner said.
While fires are still burning from the Queensland border right down the south coast of NSW, the worst conditions are expected around greater Sydney and the Illawarra/ Shoalhaven areas. Out of nearly 100 fires burning across New South Wales, 55 are un-contained.
Preliminary results suggest that the 17th December was Australia's hottest day on record at 40.9 ºC, with the average maximum across the country as a whole, exceeding the previous record of 40.3 ºC on the 7th January 2013. https://t.co/TKwWBuFPgJ pic.twitter.com/xOFpokoXos
— Bureau of Meteorology, Australia (@BOM_au) December 18, 2019
For those playing at home, that BOM data is for the AVERAGE across Australia — some places, including towns in Queensland, South Australia and Western Australia hit 47 degrees yesterday.
I’m sure everything will be fine, no need to panic about the climate or anything…
— Mat Gee (@HikaMakkinen) December 18, 2019