DisastersAussies flee more flooding
Flood water in northern Australia now cover an area larger than Germany and France combined; in addition to Queensland, large parts of the state of Victoria are now under water; around sixty towns across an area larger than Denmark to the north-west of the state capital, Melbourne, have been hit by floods as heavy rain from recent weeks makes its way across broad floodplains to the Murray River; the estimated damage in hard-hit Queensland now stands at US$19.8 billion
Residents of a string of towns in the north-west of Australia’s Victoria state were evacuating their homes today (Monday) as flood defenses failed in the face of waters flowing towards the continent’s largest river.
Around sixty towns across an area larger than Denmark to the north-west of the state capital, Melbourne, have been hit by floods as heavy rain from recent weeks makes its way across broad floodplains to the Murray River.
Earthworks holding back river waters were collapsing in some areas, bringing fast-flowing inundations of towns in the farming region.
“The levees are failing. Water is entering the area now. The area will be inundated in the next 12 hours,” Victoria’s State Emergency Service said in a flood bulletin issued to residents of Murrabit West early Monday.
The town is trapped between the Murray and one of its minor tributaries.
The Wall Street Journal reports that evacuees were being diverted towards flood relief centers in towns near Swan Hill, a city of around 10,000 on the Murray’s south bank where floodwaters from the Murray and its tributary the Loddon are expected to mingle and peak around Thursday or Friday.
Towns in the Loddon Valley including Kerang, with nearly 4,000 residents, were isolated by the rising floodwaters.
At the Pelican Waters Caravan Park on the shores of Lake Charm, a scenic spot to the north-west of Kerang, owner Vanessa Burrows said she had been forced to send home tourists at peak season as the site is expected to be cut off. Wednesday marks the Australia Day public holiday, a popular time for visits to the countryside.
“Our lake’s going to be filled to capacity so it looks like we’ll be isolated, could be for a week or two. We only moved in here in the last 10 weeks,” she said.
Flooding that hit Australia’s north-eastern state of Queensland over the past month has affected 28,000 properties, according to Queensland’s state government, and Australia & New Zealand Banking Group Ltd. estimates that costs could run to US$19.8 billion.
In the country’s arid north-west, the Bureau of Meteorology said a tropical cyclone was forming that could hit the Pilbara coast near the iron ore port of Port Hedland early on Wednesday.
The bureau issued a gale warning for the coast from Port Hedland to Karratha for the next 24 to 48 hours but said the storm was likely to remain a category one cyclone, the lowest level of intensity.
A cyclone that hit
