No respite for Queenslanders from 'biblical' floodwaters

FLOODWATERS covered large parts of Queensland this weekend in a spreading disaster that has brought some of the highest floods on record and forced thousands of people to leave their homes.

Queensland state treasurer Andrew Fraser described the floods as a "disaster of biblical proportions" and said the ultimate cost would exceed AUS$1 billion (about 65 million).

As forecasters predicted months of more rain, with fresh storms approaching the region last night, hundreds of residents in the town of Rockhampton, 370 miles north of the state capital Brisbane, fled their homes amid rising waters which are expected to reach more than 30ft in coming days.

Local mayor Brad Carter said the town was "like an island".

Across the state, the floods have affected around 200,000 people and inundated thousands of properties.

"You can look down a street for a mile and see nothing but water," Mr Carter said by tele-phone from Rockhampton, a town of 77,000 people. "You see people in boats moving their material in and out of houses."

One person was confirmed dead in the floods yesterday. On Saturday night, two cars trying to cross a flooded causeway were swept into a river in Burketown, in western Queensland, police said. A 41-year-old woman travelling in the second car disappeared in the rushing water; her body was recovered yesterday about 1.2 miles away, Queensland police said. A search was under way for a second person.

Floodwaters were receding in some areas, leaving a mammoth clean-up job, but other areas were still collecting run-off from the Christmas deluge brought by the La Nina weather pattern.

Gordon Banks, a senior forecaster in Brisbane with Australia's Bureau of Meteorology, said: "It is the Fitzroy River flowing through down to Rockhampton that is still rising and expected to get quite near to record levels.

"Those floods in the south of Queensland are hitting records. We have not seen water that high in recorded history here."

Across the state, thousands have been forced to camp out with friends or in makeshift emergency shelters over the New Year period in a disaster which has hit coal mining and agriculture particularly hard.

Mr Carter said Rockhampton's airport was closed, road and rail links to the town were mostly cut off, water was lapping at the floorboards of some homes and police had sent reinforcements to prevent any looting.

Rockhampton sits near the mouth of the giant Fitzroy River system, one of Australia's largest, carrying the water from last week's rains further inland down to the coast.Officials said its level had reached 8.85m yesterday.

Australia's Bureau of Meteorology said flood waters in the town could reach 30ft today and peak on Wednesday.

Although the rain has largely eased off, flood warnings remain in place for many rivers in the state and some communities are expected to be isolated for up to two weeks. Further rain is also expected.

Police said yesterday that 22 communities were still flooded or isolated. Where floodwaters have started to recede, there are fears of disease and accidents, in what one senior emergency official said would be "a heartbreaking return to homes".

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 are still to come for farmers, miners and the wider community.

"We have got a couple of months more and a good chance of further rainfall," Mr Perkins said.

Not everyone was outwardly worried. Water was lapping at the steps of one Rockhampton pub, but the owner had no plans to close down.

"In the big cities, they pay big bucks for canal frontage," Fitzroy Hotel owner Tony Higgins said.