Climate chaos in Australia

Floods follow heat in Adelaide's crazy summer

Adelaide has gone from setting summer heat records to having its wettest February day in four decades, and the rain is still falling.

ABC,

14 February, 2014

The latest wave of extreme heat ended in the past day when rain swept in.

Flooding was reported across the city and many roads became chaotic as they turned into deep streams and became gridlocked with traffic.

Rail boom gates were stuck in several locations, including on busy South Road, leading to enormous traffic jams.

At Woodville, in the north-west suburbs, the deep waters on Port Road caused major problems.

Emergency services have dealt with hundreds of calls about flooding across most parts of the metropolitan area.

Saint Andrews Hospital in South Terrace in the city was forced to cope with sudden floodwaters and an underground car park there was evacuated swiftly, preventing cars from disappearing under the rising water.

On Friday morning, the residents of a street at suburban Peterhead were busy digging up their gardens to fill sandbags and try to protect their homes from rising waters.

Adelaide has had about 75 millimetres of rain since the deluge began and more is expected before it eases later on Friday.

Senior weather forecaster Mark Anolak says a large part of South Australia is getting the heavy rain.

"Northern Eyre Peninsula, the mid-north, northern parts of the Mount Lofty Ranges and the Adelaide area itself. Also into the Murraylands and Riverland districts," he said.

"We're expecting a band of very heavy rainfall through there and yeah wouldn't be surprised to see 50 to 100 millimetres through that band."

Organisers of the Adelaide Fringe festival are watching the skies.

After being forced to reschedule the opening parade in 2011 due to rain, they again are concerned about the prospects for tonight's official opening.

A decision will be made later in the day about whether the city parade will go ahead

Fire in the Hazelwood mine

HAZELWOOD: Fire services and mine management are working together and have made significant progress this morning to contain the fire in the Hazelwood mine in Morwell. The fire is burning in non-working sections of the mine, and is not currently impacting on the security of electricity supply for Victoria. There are 170 CFA and MFB firefighters working around the clock on fire suppression, with efforts today focused on areas of the mine that will minimise down-wind smoke for communities and firefighters.