Australia orders residents of wildfire-hit region to flee floods

Emergency services have warned people to flee floods threatening more than 130 homes in eastern Australia, in a region swept by bushfires just 48 hours earlier.

Heavy rains had swollen the McAllister River in the eastern state of Victoria on Thursday, threatening rural homes, said Deputy Chief of the State's Emergency Service David Baker.

"We estimate up to around 130 properties may be impacted by this event, hence why we issued an emergency warning," he said.

Emergency services issued warnings overnight for people to move to higher ground or to stay away from high-risk areas near the McAllister and other flooded rivers in Victoria's Gippsland region east of Melbourne.

Authorities warned those remaining may lose power, water, sewerage and phone networks due to flooding.

'Black Summer'

Two days earlier, firefighters were battling bushfires across thousands of hectares elsewhere in region of Gippsland, forcing evacuations in more than a dozen rural neighbourhoods.

After several wet years, experts are expecting the coming Australian summer to bring the most intense bushfire season since 2019-2020.

During that "Black Summer", bushfires raged across Australia's eastern seaboard, razing swathes of forest, killing millions of animals and blanketing cities in smoke.