Australia floods cause ‘catastrophic’ damage
By Daniel Munoz; Reporting and writing by Michael Perry in Sydney; Additional reporting by James Regan in Sydney, James Grubel in Canberra and Rebekah Kebede in Perth; Editing by Mark Bendeich and Alex Richardson
Tue Jan 4, 2011 9:24pm EST ROCKHAMPTON, Australia (Reuters) – Australia’s record floods are causing catastrophic damage to infrastructure in the state of Queensland and have forced 75 percent of its coal mines, which fuel Asia’s steel mills, to grind to a halt, Queensland’s premier said on Wednesday. The worst flooding in decades has affected an area the size of Germany and France, left towns virtual islands in a muddy inland sea, cut major rail and road links to coal ports, slashed exports and forced up world coal prices. “Seventy-five per cent of our mines are currently not operating because of this flood, so that’s a massive impact on the international markets and the international manufacture of steel,” Premier Anna Bligh told local television. Queensland state is the world’s biggest exporter of coal used in steel-making. “Queensland is a very big state. It relies on the lifelines of its transport system, and those transport systems in some cases are facing catastrophic damage,” said Bligh. “Without doubt this disaster is without precedent in its size and its scale here in Queensland. What I’m seeing in every community I visit is heartbreak, devastation.” … While floodwaters are receding in the Bowen Basin coal region, flooding continued further downstream and fresh monsoonal rains are forecast to cause fresh flooding. Flood warnings have been declared for seven river systems, with one swollen river now 6 km (4 miles) wide. “It’s going to be two weeks before people … are able to move back into their homes,” said Rockhampton mayor Brad Carter. Residents in the town of St George have built dirt moats to try and stop the floodwaters reaching their homes, but authorities fear 80 percent of the small town will be swamped if the Balonne River reaches a record 14 meters on Saturday. “It’s started to rain here again. We could get a flood on top of our (earlier) flood,” said Barnaby Joyce, a National party senator who lives in St George. … “The cost is already in the billions and billions of dollars. And that’s in public infrastructure, private dwellings and possessions, crop losses, stock losses, business impacted,” said Queensland Emergency Services Minister Neil Roberts. “It’s just going to be an enormous bill, and it’s going to take a long, long time to recover.”
