Sydney - Wildfires destroyed homes and flooding claimed the life of a man in embattled Australia on Sunday, as officials warned that last week's monster cyclone would compound economic woes.
Three major fires razed properties around the west coast city of Perth, as a volatile weather system trailing Cyclone Yasi, a top-level storm that battered Australia's northeast coast on Thursday, continued to cause havoc.
“There have been homes destroyed but we are not sure how many at this stage,” an emergency spokesperson told AFP, describing conditions as “pretty nasty”.
Local media said up to 35 houses had been engulfed by flames at Roleystone, a heavily wooded area on the southern outskirts of Perth, with another out-of-control blaze on the northern fringes forcing more than 150 evacuations.
A thick cloud of smoke hung over Perth, as helicopters doused the flames with water from above while dozens of firefighters tackled the blaze on the ground, the AAP news agency reported.
The fires were described as a threat to lives and property, with officials urging residents to “act immediately to survive” either abandoning their home if it was safe to do so or preparing to defend their property from the flames.
Reports said a firefighter had been injured battling the blaze near Roleystone and a further 10 people were taken for hospital treatment after inhaling thick smoke.
The fires came as the southeastern state of Victoria paused to mark two years since the “Black Saturday” firestorm that claimed 173 lives and obliterated entire villages.
Some towns ravaged by the 2009 fires were also hit by Cyclone Yasi-linked flash floods overnight which forced thousands from their homes in Victoria, still reeling from last month's flooding that also swamped Queensland state.
A year's worth of rain was dumped on Mildura - a city of some 50 000 residents - in a single day, inundating 200 homes.
“We are heading for some major problems in Victoria and this is going to strike people as really cruel, given that Victoria is about to mark the second anniversary of the devastating bushfires,” said Prime Minister Julia Gillard.
A man died after his truck was swept into floodwaters as he tried to cross a swollen creek near the rural town of Wagga Wagga on Sunday, while intense rains were also forecast for Alice Springs, in Australia's desert centre.
Yasi was one of the largest storms to ever hit Australia, and Treasurer Wayne Swan warned it would deepen economic woes brought by the Queensland floods - the recovery from which is set to cost an estimated A$5.6-billion.
“Even at this early stage, it's clear that severe damage was done to crops, buildings and infrastructure in affected areas,” said Swan.
“The region impacted by the cyclone contributes around A$1-billion of agricultural production annually, and initial reports suggest at least half of that has been wiped out this year.”
Tourism would also be hit, he added, with the cyclone region accounting for about five percent of Australia's tourist earnings.
Swan said devastation of sugar and banana crops would add at least 0.25 percentage points to inflation in the March quarter, on top of the 0.25 percentage points already brought by the floods.
Analysts have put the damage to Australia's agricultural sector as a result of the recent disasters at A$1.4-billion.
Canberra has announced a one-off tax on higher-income earners to help meet the cost of rebuilding from the floods.
But Gillard vowed not to increase the levy and said recovery from the cyclone and fresh Victoria downpours would be funded through spending cutbacks.
Australia's wild weather has been linked to an especially strong La Nina event, which traditionally brings torrential rains and cyclones to the vast southern continent. - AFP