Australia floods: supplies flown in to submerged towns
Military aircrafts airlift supplies to communities being submerged by swollen rivers, as record flooding in Queensland cuts off roads and devastates farmland.
Waters have slowly submerged parts of the Australian city of Rockhampton after heavy rain began falling in the north east state of Queensland before Christmas.
The water is expected continue to rise and officials have warned the crisis could last another month.
Areas the size of France and Germany have been submerged in the floods and parts of the Capricorn Highway, the major traffic artery through Queensland, are underwater.
Over 20 towns in the region have been inundated with flood water, with an estimated 200,000 people affected.
High waters surged into homes in the sinking town of Rockhampton, sending furniture cascading down torrents of floodwater.
Storm warnings were issued in southern Queensland late on Monday, with heavy rain and new flash floods forecast.
Motorists were told to avoid flooded roads after a man drowned in central Queensland. Three people have now been killed in flood related incidents in what state Treasurer Andrew Fraser called a “disaster of biblical proportions”.
Floodwaters have brought most coal mining operations to a halt in Queensland — the state exporting the majority of the coking coal produced in Australia. Sugar cane production was also hit as was – to a lesser extent – the grain harvest.
The state’s emergency coordinator, Police Deputy Commissioner Ian Stewart, told reporters flood waters in Rockhampton stood nine metres (30 ft) above normal early on Monday.
“Today we’ll see resupply of Rockhampton by military aircraft taking supplies into (nearby) Mackay and then road transporting them down to Rockhampton,” he said. “That will continue until such time as the road is cut.”
Rockhampton, a community of 77,000 just off the Pacific coast and 600 km (370 miles) north of the state capital Brisbane, was accessible mainly by emergency services boats.
Rescue workers escorted stranded patients out of hospitals, police ordered reluctant residents to leave their homes, and electricity company teams made their way up to abandoned homes to ensure power was switched off.
Snakes slithered their way across the waterlogged highway a few km outside the devastated town.
Police cordoned off vast swathes of territory to keep people out of flooded areas. Emergency officials erected dozens of tents for a “tactical medical centre” at the small airport in the coal port of Gladstone — about 100 km south of Rockhampton.
