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A30 world news
Diaranson 2 Maart 2022

Massive cargo ship carrying cars sinks in mid-Atlantic

firmed the sinking, saying it
occurred outside Portuguese The ship was transporting
waters. A Portuguese Air electric and non-electric ve-
Force helicopter evacuated hicles, according to Portu-
the 22 crew members when guese authorities. Suspicion
the fire first broke out, set- on what started the fire on
ting the ship adrift. Feb. 16 has fallen on lithium
batteries used in electric ve-
Ocean-going tugboats with hicles, though authorities say
firefighting equipment had they have no firm evidence
been hosing down the ship’s about the cause.
hull to cool it.
Authorities feared the ship
It wasn’t clear how many cars could pollute the ocean. The
were onboard the ship, but ship was carrying 2,000 met-
vessels of the Felicity Ace’s ric tons (2,200 tons) of fuel
size can carry at least 4,000 and 2,000 metric tons (2,200
vehicles. tons) of oil. It can carry more
than 17,000 metric tons
European carmakers declined (18,700 tons) of cargo.
to discuss how many vehicles
and what models were on The Portuguese navy said in
board, but Porsche custom- a statement that only a few
ers in the United States were pieces of wreckage and a
being contacted by their deal- small patch of oil was visible
ers, the company said. where the ship went down.
The tugboats were breaking
(AP) — A large cargo ves- fire. “We are already working to up the patch with hoses, it
sel carrying cars from The Felicity Ace sank about replace every car affected by said.
Germany to the United 400 kilometers (250 miles) The 200-meter-long this incident and the first
States sank Tuesday in the off Portugal’s Azores Islands (650-foot-long) vessel listed new cars will be built soon,” A Portuguese Air Force plane
mid-Atlantic, 13 days after as it was being towed, MOL to starboard before going un- Angus Fitton, vice president and a Portuguese navy vessel
a fire broke out on board, Ship Management in Singa- der, the ship’s manager said. of PR at Porsche Cars North are to remain at the scene on
the ship’s manager and pore said in a statement. A America, Inc., told The Asso- the lookout for signs of pol-
the Portuguese navy said. salvage team had put out the The Portuguese navy con- ciated Press in an email. lution.

Major floods swamp Australia’s east coast, claiming 8 lives

(AP) — Parts of Austra- All eight flood deaths have ister Mark Bailey said major
lia’s third-most populous been in Queensland state, of The Brisbane River peaked roads had been cut. Train and Lismore was bracing for its
city Brisbane were under which Brisbane is the capital. on Monday at 3.85 meters ferry services across Brisbane worst flooding on record.
water Monday after heavy A search continues for a solo (12 foot, 3 inches), officials have been halted, he said.
rain brought record flood- sailor, aged in his 70s, who said. Downtown Lismore was in-
ing to some east coast ar- fell overboard from his ves- “We’re going to have local- undated on Monday after
eas and killed eight peo- sel in the Brisbane River near That was 61 centimeters (2 ized flooding in a lot of areas days of unrelenting rain and
ple. the city center on Saturday. feet) below the 4.46 meter for a couple of days yet,” Bai- 15,000 people had been evac-
(14 foot, 3 inch) flood level ley said. uated, officials said.
The flooding in Brisbane and Police were also searching for reached in 2011, officials said.
its surrounds is the worst a man missing from Goodna,
since 2011 when the city of west of Brisbane and another Queensland Premier An-
2.6 million people was inun- Esk, northwest of Brisbane. nastacia Palaszczuk said the
dated by what was described rainfall over Brisbane had
as a once-in-a-century event. South of the Queensland been extraordinary since
border, police on Monday November when authorities
The latest fatality was a man were searching for man after were considering water use
in his 50s who drowned on officers heard him calling for restrictions due to a shortage.
Monday after driving his car help on Sunday in floodwa-
into floodwater before dawn ters in the New South Wales “It is still a significant event,
at Gold Coast city, south of town of Lismore. and I think everyone would
Brisbane, Queensland state agree no one has seen this
police said. Police warned downtown amount of rain in such a
Brisbane businesses along short period of time,” in the
The bodies of the man and the river waterfront to evacu- southeastern area, Palaszczuk
his dog were retrieved hours ate after a pontoon carrying a said.
later from a submerged car crane broke from its moor-
which had been washed from ings upstream and began rid- Brisbane Lord Mayor Adrian
the road, a police statement ing the floodwaters toward Schrinner said the floods are
said. them. “very different” to 2011 be-
cause the rain pummeled the
Queensland emergency ser- Multiple emergency flood region for five days. In 2011,
vices warned life-threatening alerts were in place for Bris- the rain had stopped days
flash flooding was occurring bane suburbs, where 2,145 before the Brisbane River
in parts of Gold Coast. homes and 2,356 businesses peaked and authorities had
were submerged on Monday. warned for several days of
Emergency crews made more Another 10,827 properties flooding downstream.
than 130 swift-water rescues were partially flooded above
in 24 hours, officials said. the floorboards. Queensland Transport Min-