‘Not up to it': Energy minister blasts power grid after blackouts to 200,000 Victorian households

Up to 200,000 Victorian households have been hit with rolling power outages, with the state's energy minister declaring the energy grid is not fit for modern living.

Victoria's Energy Minister Lily D'ambrosio says the situation
changed rapidly over the course of Friday as Victorians swelter
in unrelenting heatwave conditions.

Major outages at coal plants combined with wind farms operating well below capacity saw the energy market operator pull the plug on more than 60,000 customers.

Power distribution companies reported outages to more than double that number as the heat rose above 40 degrees early in the afternoon.

Read the story from The Age by Cole Latimer, Simone Fox Koob, Rachel Dexter and Liam Mannix - “‘Not up to it': Energy minister blasts power grid after blackouts to 200,000 Victorian households.”

Eastern states battered by more wild weather as a cyclone and floods hit

As Cyclone Owen made landfall and was downgraded to a category 2 storm over Queensland’s west coast, cities and towns across eastern Australia were hit by their own flooding and chaos.

Heavy rains on Friday night made movement difficult in parts of
 Melbourne - this is an underpass in Richmond.

And there’s more to come with weather warnings issued for more heavy rain and flash flooding across parts of NSW and Victoria over the weekend.

On Friday afternoon in Melbourne, where a late afternoon storm dumped 37.2 millimetres of rain in just 60 minutes, roads flooded and a Paul Kelly concert at the Sidney Myer Music Bowl came to a soggy halt.

Fans found themselves ankle-deep in water as speakers tumbled and the capacity crowd was soaked to the skin.

Read The New Daily story - “Eastern states battered by more wild weather as a cyclone and floods hit."

‘Unimaginable devastation’: Biggest storm in a century slams into Florida

Florida has been hit by the first devastating effects of Hurricane Michael as the biggest storm to strike the region in a century made landfall Thursday morning (AEST).

The storm surge and waves from Hurricane Michael
batter the beachfront homes in the Florida Panhandle. 

The powerful Category 4 storm brought torrential rainfall, hurricane-force winds of up to 250 km/h and life-threatening water surges to the Florida Panhandle.

Florida Governor Rick Scott warned of “unimaginable devastation”, saying it would be the worst storm in 100 years.

Read the story from The New Daily - “‘Unimaginable devastation’: Biggest storm in a century slams into Florida.”