Record rain in Australia douses wildfires but prompts flood warning

Successive natural disasters and coronavirus likely to hit country's economy

Sea foam covers an area in front of beachfront houses after heavy rain and storms at Collaroy in Sydney's Northern Beaches area. The region's economy could be adversely affected if road, railway and other networks are blocked by flooding. © AP

FUMI MATSUMOTO, Nikkei staff writer

February 15, 2020 12:30 JST

SYDNEY -- Australia is being pummeled by record heavy rainfall that has extinguished the wildfires ravaging New South Wales but prompted the country's weather agency to issue flood and thunderstorm warnings for multiple parts of the state.

"In what has been a very traumatic, exhausting and anxious bush fire season so far, for the first time this season all bush and grass fires in NSW are now contained," the NSW Rural Fire Service said on Thursday. The wildfires broke out in November last year.