By Torsten Blackwood
Thu Dec 30, 3:22 am ET BUNDABERG, Australia (AFP) – Hundreds of people fled worsening floods in Australia’s rural northeast Thursday as officials warned the disaster may last for weeks, prompting fears over food shortages and disease outbreaks. The latest evacuees, including 100 residents air-lifted from one town, join over 1,000 moved earlier, while thousands more braced for large-scale inundations in the regional centres of Emerald, Bundaberg and Rockhampton. As displaced residents sheltered in makeshift relief centres or with friends and relatives in the farming and coal-mining region, Queensland premier Anna Bligh warned the state was facing its “toughest hour”. “This is a disaster on an unprecedented scale,” Bligh told reporters. “What we’ve never seen is so many towns, so many communities, so many regions all affected at once. It is a miserable and heart-breaking event,” she added. Tropical cyclone Tasha caused widespread flooding over Christmas in the economically important zone near Brisbane, with rivers now swelling to record levels as rainwater flows downstream. Some 80 percent of Emerald, population 11,000, is expected to be flooded after a nearby river reached record levels, while Bundaberg has been split in two by the inundation and 4,000 Rockhampton properties could also be hit. … Meanwhile weather forecasters warned that another cyclone was forming off Western Australia, on the other side of the huge country, while extreme heat posed a wildfire risk in South Australia and Victoria over New Year. …
Hundreds flee Australian floods as disaster worsens
