Bundaberg, Australia - Flood waters swept through vast areas of northeastern Australia on Saturday, threatening to inundate thousands more homes in a disaster one official said was of “biblical proportions”.
As Queen Elizabeth II sent her “sincere sympathies” to Queenslanders who rang in a damp new year, helicopters were being used to deliver food and other supplies to isolated towns.
Up to 200,000 people have been affected by the floods which have hurt the nation's lucrative mining industry and cut off major highways as the water rushes through sodden inland regions to the sea.
“In many ways, it is a disaster of biblical proportions,” Queensland State Treasurer Andrew Fraser told reporters in flood-hit Bundaberg.
Prime Minister Julia Gillard, who on Friday toured inundated regions, said the floods had been devastating and would clearly have an economic impact.
“We're still directly battling floodwaters, we haven't seen the peak of the flood yet at centres like Rockhampton, so the people of Queensland in many places are doing it tough today,” she said.
Gillard said the mining sector had been particularly badly hit, with some companies using the force majeure clauses in their contracts.
“They've had to say to the people who buy their minerals that at this time, circumstances are such that they can't keep supply moving,” she told reporters.
“Even those mines that could continue to mine obviously have got difficulties with supply routes because so many roads have been affected,” she said, adding that farmers, small business and tourism would also suffer.
Emergency workers were focusing their efforts on Rockhampton where the Fitzroy River had broken its banks and was rising dangerously, threatening some 2,000 to 4,000 homes ahead of reaching its expected peak on Wednesday.
“We know we have prepared as best we can - most people who are expecting water to inundate their houses have evacuated,” said Rockhampton Mayor Brad Carter of the flood which could leave the town stranded for 10 days.
Rockhampton's airport was expected to close to commercial flights Saturday as floodwaters rose, while overall the state is experiencing flooding over an area the size of France and Germany combined.
But as some wait for the flood peak, in other towns residents are preparing to return to homes they evacuated last week in the wake of torrential downpours.
In the central Queensland town of Emerald, where about 80
percent of the town was submerged by the worst flooding on record, water from the Nogoa River has inundated some 1,000 homes.
“We've only worked that out by taking aerial shots,” Central Highlands Mayor Peter Maguire told Australian news agency AAP. “There may be more homes affected, we don't know.”
“We're talking months of cleaning up and repairs,” he said, adding that in total about 4,000 homes in the region were flood affected to some degree.
In Bundaberg in the state's south-east the clean-up was set to begin in about 300 homes and 120 businesses as the flood waters rapidly recede but other towns such as Theodore and Condamine remain evacuated after days of surging waters.
Flooding hit record levels in Condamine and the town could remain abandoned for a week, according to Western Downs Regional Mayor Ray Brown.
“You're talking a substantial length time, at least a week, if everything runs smoothly and recedes, before anybody can actually get back in there to have a look,” he told ABC Radio.
Treasurer Fraser said the state's finances would be hard hit by the deluge, which will impact on mining royalties revenue due to expected lost production.
“The cost to the state will be huge - both in direct costs such as rebuilding roads, and other damaged infrastructure and providing relief payments to families - but also in lost income, while the mining, agriculture and tourism sectors recover,” he said.
“Royalty forecasts are likely to be hit with freight lines cut and reports that many mines may not reach full production again for two to three months,” Fraser said. “These floods are going to hit the bottom line hard.”
The floods prompted a message of support from the queen, who said she had been following “with great concern” news of the devastating floods.
“Please extend my sincere sympathies to all the people whose communities and livelihoods have been so badly damaged in this disaster,” she wrote to her Queensland representative Governor Penelope Wensley. - Sapa-AFP