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| Australia fires live: NSW and Victoria bushfires crisis has 'months to go' as Morrison announces recovery effort – latest updates | Australia fires live: NSW and Victoria bushfires crisis has 'months to go' as Morrison announces recovery effort – latest updates |
| (32 minutes later) | |
| NSW RFS commissioner Shane Fitzsimmons says he was frustrated to learn of ADF deployment from the media. Follow all today’s live news and latest updates | NSW RFS commissioner Shane Fitzsimmons says he was frustrated to learn of ADF deployment from the media. Follow all today’s live news and latest updates |
| The ACT is expecting 100,o00 P2 masks from the commonwealth tomorrow morning. | |
| ACT chief minister Andrew Barr: | |
| Andrew Barr is addressing the media. | |
| Canberra has the worst air quality in the world at the moment. | |
| Barr says masks are coming (you should be able to get them at your local chemists, with some hardware stores also providing them) but he advises residents to avoid leaving their homes. | |
| It may seem a bit better today - but we are just in the eye of the storm, Victorian authorities say. | |
| [cont from previous post] | |
| Likewise David and Denise Gatrell, who have set up camp on the water’s edge. | |
| They evacuated from the village of Towanba, near Eden, last week. First they moved to Eden, then, like John, got sent into Merimbula last night. | |
| “We decided to leave early because a fire was a new experience for us and we were worried we might panic if we stayed,” Denise said. | |
| “We’ve been told the village is safe for now but the fire is apparently circling around the village so we don’t know.” | |
| Just in the past few minutes a few things have happened. First, the fire in Eden was downgraded from emergency level to watch and act. Then the first aerial support anyone has seen for a while started flying overhead. And now, incredibly, it’s started to rain a little bit. Not enough to make much of a difference, I’d say, but enough to elicit a few cheers from the people camping here. | |
| Greetings from Merimbula, just north of Eden on the New South Wales far south coast. | |
| I’ve travelled over here today from the Snowy Mountains. After the drive I think I know how Frodo felt heading into Mordor. The light went from orange to red to black and then back again. | |
| There are people scattered everywhere. The official evacuation centre at the Sapphire Club is at or near capacity, and a lot of people have just taken up residence in parks along the water’s edge. | |
| I spoke to a few of them just a minute ago and they’re in remarkably good cheer despite what they’ve been through. A number of people have been evacuated twice, first into Eden and then, last night, into Merimbula. | |
| Eden resident John Ironmonger got a knock on the door from the police at 5pm yesterday was told to get out. Like everyone here, he had no idea whether his property had come under threat and is staying put with a friend for the time being. | |
| “I don’t know when I’ll get back into Eden and to be honest I wouldn’t want to go back yet,” he said. “It was pretty bad yesterday. The sky was much darker than it is here and we didn’t really know what was happening. | |
| “The information wasn’t really coming through other than the local ABC which is all we’ve been relying on. If the house goes it goes, we’re here and we’re safe. | |
| “Everyone here has just been shuffled around from place to place.” | |
| But the reprieve is not predicted to last long: | |
| There’s an update on the East Gippsland fires: | |
| Looks like the M5 is moving again, if you, or someone you know, were stuck on that. | |
| It was silly at the time too. Anyone with a newborn, an elderly loved one, or just respiratory issues which make them more vulnerable are in distress. Even if they live in high-rise buildings and vote differently from the Queensland MP. | |
| P2 masks are coming to Canberra. | |
| They are sold out across the capital, and with mail deliveries still suspended and planes increasingly unable to land, there has been no word on when they would be restocked. | |
| John Howard continued: | John Howard continued: |