The worst dust storm in decades swept across eastern Australia yesterday, blanketing Sydney and snarling transport as freak conditions also brought earthquakes, giant hailstones and even a tornado.
Gale-force winds dumped thousands of tonnes of red desert dust on Australia’s biggest city, shrouding it in an eerie orange haze and coating the iconic Sydney Opera House in a fine layer of powder.
The storm, reportedly the most serious since the 1940s, then spread 600km up the coast to Queensland and could even hit New Zealand, some 4,000km away, experts said.
PHOTO: REUTERS
Dust covered most of New South Wales, Australia’s most populous state, pushing air pollution to record levels and depositing about 75,000 tonnes of powder in the Tasman Sea every hour.
“Dust storms like this occur quite regularly but they rarely travel this far east and come through Sydney,” said John Leys, principal research scientist with New South Wales’ Department of Climate Change and Water.
Sydney residents wore masks and covered their mouths with scarves as they traveled to work under hazy skies. Traffic was bumper-to-bumper on major highways.
Air transport was severely disrupted with passengers facing long delays at Sydney airport and many international flights diverted to Melbourne and Brisbane.
Flag-carrier Qantas urged passengers to cancel any non-urgent travel, while budget offshoot Jetstar offered free flight rescheduling and refunds.
“We encourage any passengers with non-essential travel arrangements to reconsider their travel plans for the day,” Qantas said in a statement.
Sydney Ferries suspended harbor services and police warned drivers to take extra care in poor visibility. Ambulance workers reported a sudden spike in respiratory problems.
“We have already seen an increase in calls to people suffering from asthma and other respiratory problems,” New South Wales Ambulance Service said in a statement.
Australia, in the grip of a decade-long drought, is emerging from an abnormally hot southern hemisphere winter including the hottest August on record.
Elsewhere in New South Wales, hail stones “the size of cricket balls” smashed windows as thunderstorms and gale-force winds lashed the state late on Tuesday.
“We’ve had reports of cars with both their front and rear windscreens smashed,” an official from the State Emergency Service said.
Victoria state was on alert for flash floods as heavy rains fell, following a pair of minor earthquakes on Tuesday. The 3.0 and 2.6-magnitude tremors did not cause any damage, officials said.
Residents near the capital Canberra described how a mini-tornado tore through the town of Murrumbateman late on Tuesday.
“It sounded like a jumbo jet rumbling onto the roof,” one resident told ABC.
Police in southwestern New South Wales, bordering Victoria, reported bizarre conditions on Tuesday as dark red skies thick with dust cut visibility to just 2m to 3m in some areas.
“I’ve never seen anything like it in all my life, and I grew up here,” a police officer at the town of Broken Hill told national news agency AAP.
“It was darker than night-time and lasted for about half an hour. You couldn’t even see the street lights,” he said.
And residents near the capital Canberra described how a mini-tornado tore through the town of Murrumbateman late on Tuesday.
“It sounded like a jumbo jet rumbling on to the roof,” one resident told ABC.
A Chinese freighter that allegedly snapped an undersea cable linking Taiwan proper to Penghu County is suspected of being owned by a Chinese state-run company and had docked at the ports of Kaohsiung and Keelung for three months using different names. On Tuesday last week, the Togo-flagged freighter Hong Tai 58 (宏泰58號) and its Chinese crew were detained after the Taipei-Penghu No. 3 submarine cable was severed. When the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) first attempted to detain the ship on grounds of possible sabotage, its crew said the ship’s name was Hong Tai 168, although the Automatic Identification System (AIS)
An Akizuki-class destroyer last month made the first-ever solo transit of a Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force ship through the Taiwan Strait, Japanese government officials with knowledge of the matter said yesterday. The JS Akizuki carried out a north-to-south transit through the Taiwan Strait on Feb. 5 as it sailed to the South China Sea to participate in a joint exercise with US, Australian and Philippine forces that day. The Japanese destroyer JS Sazanami in September last year made the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force’s first-ever transit through the Taiwan Strait, but it was joined by vessels from New Zealand and Australia,
SECURITY: The purpose for giving Hong Kong and Macau residents more lenient paths to permanent residency no longer applies due to China’s policies, a source said The government is considering removing an optional path to citizenship for residents from Hong Kong and Macau, and lengthening the terms for permanent residence eligibility, a source said yesterday. In a bid to prevent the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) from infiltrating Taiwan through immigration from Hong Kong and Macau, the government could amend immigration laws for residents of the territories who currently receive preferential treatment, an official familiar with the matter speaking on condition of anonymity said. The move was part of “national security-related legislative reform,” they added. Under the amendments, arrivals from the Chinese territories would have to reside in Taiwan for
CRITICAL MOVE: TSMC’s plan to invest another US$100 billion in US chipmaking would boost Taiwan’s competitive edge in the global market, the premier said The government would ensure that the most advanced chipmaking technology stays in Taiwan while assisting Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) in investing overseas, the Presidential Office said yesterday. The statement follows a joint announcement by the world’s largest contract chipmaker and US President Donald Trump on Monday that TSMC would invest an additional US$100 billion over the next four years to expand its semiconductor manufacturing operations in the US, which would include construction of three new chip fabrication plants, two advanced packaging facilities, and a research and development center. The government knew about the deal in advance and would assist, Presidential