SW Australia Awaiting "Perfect Storm" As Cyclone Remains Combine With 750-mile Storm Front - Reuters

[hatrack]

CANBERRA - Australia's southwest was bracing on Thursday for a destructive weather front that could link with remnants of a tropical cyclone to create a "perfect storm".

Military and emergency teams on standby in Western Australia state expected a deep low pressure system to cross the coast mid-afternoon, bringing 120 kmh (75 mph) winds and heavy rain. The Bureau of Meteorology warned the front could link with the remnants of Tropical Cyclone Isobel, which crossed the northwest coast on Wednesday, and dump more than 100 millimetres of rain on the Kalgoorlie goldfields, east of Perth.

Communities along the southern coast, including Esperance and Albany, were also braced for flooding from what authorities said would be a weather front extending 1,200 km (745 miles), or as far as London to Rome.

EDIT

Australian oil and gas producer Santos Ltd. said it expected weather disruption to be minimal, adding that it would resume production at its Mutineer-Exeter field off Western Australia on Friday, two days after being shut as Cyclone Isobel threatened.
But BHP Billiton Ltd. had only a token workforce at its Ravensthorpe nickel project, scheduled to go into service in 2008, and had halted mining operations at its Mt. Keith and Leinster nickel mines due to heavy rains. BHP spokeswoman Emma Meade said the rain was making the ground unstable and unsafe to operate heavy equipment, but the company's concentrators continued to run.

EDIT

http://www.planetark.com/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/39701/story.htm

[Blue_In_AK]

1. Oh, no, my daughter's vacationing in Perth.

I hope her luck continues to hold. She was in Morocco just before 9/11, Thailand two weeks before the Tsunami and now this. :scared:

[kestrel91316]

2. Well, they DO need the rain.................

[Joe Chi Minh]

3. It's reported to be the worst drought on record, I believe.