Sydney breathes again as dust covers Brisbane - 紐澳

新聞來源: http://tinyurl.com/mdoseq

ABC- Sydney breathes again as dust covers Brisbane
Wednesday September 23, 2009 - 16:20 EST

The weather bureau says it expects a massive dust storm will continue to move
into Queensland's far north, leaving Sydney and Brisbane with clean air but
coated in a film of dust.

Sydney awoke to an eerie red dawn after strong north-westerly overnight winds
dumped thousands of tonnes of dust on the Harbour City, the Hunter Valley,
Wollongong and the state's west.

Hours later the dust cleared from Sydney and arrived in Brisbane, hampering
firefighting efforts in southern Queensland by temporarily grounding water
bombing helicopters.

Senior forecaster Tony Auden says the dusty conditions should ease overnight
in Queensland's south-east.

"We've seen gusts up to 50 or 60 kilometres an hour around the south-east,"
he said.

"We expect them to ease slightly and with them the fire danger should start
to drop too.

"And for the next couple of days at least, expect hopefully those clearer
skies and cooler temperatures and lighter winds, so we will be out of those
extreme fire dangers at least for a few days."

But Mr Auden says the dust haze that has blanketed Sydney and Brisbane will
also be experienced in the far north.

"It should make its way up into the Sunshine Coast and into those Capricornia
and central coast areas soon," he said.

"Much of western Queensland is still experiencing dust haze too and I think
we will see dust all the way up to the tropics.

"For the south-east expect it to probably linger for the rest of today and
hopefully settle out of the air overnight. We should have relatively normal
conditions with just a bit of lingering haze for tomorrow."

Queensland Health's Christine Selvey says the dust, combined with smoke from
bushfires, means people with lung and heart disease need to remain vigilant.

"They need to monitor their symptoms closely and to follow their management
plan if they start getting any symptoms that are worse," she said.

"Most people with asthma have an asthma management plan and certainly if
their symptoms are getting worse and they are unable to control them
adequately, then they need to seek attention early on."

The poor visibility hampered transport across the affected regions, slowing
traffic and delaying flights.

A man in a small fishing boat off South Stradbroke Island just north of
Brisbane could not find his way back to land because of the dust, and a
helicopter was sent to find him.

Queensland police say the dust is reducing visibility on the roads and
Sergeant Laurie Shevlin has warned drivers to slow down.

"It's quite an unusual event and as we can all see, it's clearly reducing the
visibility the people have on the roads," he said.

"So I just urge all motorists that when you are driving, or even as
pedestrians crossing the road, that you just drive to the conditions. If you
can't see very far in front of you then obviously slow down."

The dust storms also caused long delays at Sydney and Brisbane airports.

Passengers at Sydney Airport faced delays of up to six hours for
international flights and three hours for domestic trips, and some
international flights bound for Sydney were diverted to Melbourne Airport.

Melbourne Airport's Carly Phillips says the backlog is now being cleared.

"We still have some of the international diversions that are on the ground
and preparing to get back up and just go on their way to Sydney," she said.

"But the domestic flights are returning to normal, so I would anticipate that
certainly in the next few hours we would be almost back on schedule."

Visibility at Brisbane Airport was reduced to 200 metres earlier today but it
has since improved to 800 metres.

Rebecca McConochie from Brisbane Airport says there have been delays due to
the dust in Sydney.

"Brisbane Airport has not had to turn away any aircraft today, however we
have received a number of diversions from other airports such as Sydney, who
have experienced significant issues and delays due to the dust storm," she
said.

- ABC

c ABC 2009

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