Record floods swamp Australia’s northeast coast – ‘We have not seen water this high in recorded history here’
By Daniel Munoz; editing by Jonathan Thatcher
Sun Jan 2, 2011 10:03am EST GLADSTONE, Australia (Reuters) – Large parts of Australia’s coastal northeast disappeared under floodwaters on Sunday in a spreading disaster that has brought some of the highest floods on record and forced thousands from their homes. Queensland State Treasurer Andrew Fraser described the floods as a “disaster of biblical proportions” and said the ultimate cost would exceed A$1 billion (1.02 billion). As forecasters predicted months of more rain, hundreds of residents in the town of Rockhampton, 600 km (370 miles) north of the Queensland state capital Brisbane, fled homes amid rising waters which are expected to reach over 30 feet deep in coming days. … “It is the Fitzroy River flowing through down to Rockhampton that is still rising and expected to get quite near to record levels,” Gordon Banks, a senior forecaster in Brisbane with Australia’s Bureau of Meteorology, told Reuters. “Those floods in the south of Queensland are hitting records. We have not seen water that high in recorded history here.” … Australia’s Bureau of Meteorology said flood waters in the town could reach nine meters (30 feet) on Monday and peak at 9.4 meters on Wednesday, a level similar to floods that hit in 1991 and 1954. … Bureau of Meteorology hydrologist Jeff Perkins said floodwaters would also flow on down to western New South Wales. Normally the tropical wet season would only be beginning around now, meaning more headaches to come for farmers, miners and the general community. “We have got a couple of months more and a good chance of further rainfall,” Perkins told Reuters.
