Australia begins damage assessment amid temporary respite from bushfires

Australian authorities began assessing the damage on Sunday from heatwave-spurred bushfires that swept through two states a day earlier, as cooler conditions provided a temporary respite from blazes that have scarred the country's east coast for weeks. "It certainly is a welcome reprieve, it is psychological relief if nothing else," New South Wales (NSW) state Rural Fire Service Commissioner Shane Fitzsimmons said in an afternoon briefing on the situation. Tens of thousands of homes in both NSW and Victoria states were without power on Sunday as a large-scale military and police effort continued to provide supplies and evacuate thousands of people who have been trapped for days in coastal towns by the fires.

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