CANBERRA, Oct. 25 — Wild weather brought wind gusts of up to 98 km/h to parts of the Australian state of South Australia over the weekend, damaging property and bringing down trees, while about 12,000 electricity customers lost power.
South Australia’s state emergency service received about 60 calls for assistance in 24 hours from 7 a.m. Saturday, with most involving wind damage and fallen trees in northern suburbs of the state capital, Adelaide, and Port Augusta, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) reported on Sunday.
The Bureau of Meteorology’s David Crock said wind gusts of 96 to 98 km/h were recorded in several locations late Saturday, including Port Augusta, where the winds caused damage, it said.
A cold front off southern Australia was drawing moisture from a tropical air mass over the neighboring state of Queensland, generating a band of rain across the states of South Australia, Victoria and Tasmania early Sunday, Crock told the ABC.
Rainfall since 9 a.m. Saturday local time had reached 15 to 20 mm through Adelaide and the hills, with some areas in eastern South Australia recording 25 to 30 mm.
The weather system was expected to move towards Australia’s eastern states, Crock added. (Namibia Daily News / Xinhua)
