Cyclone brings floods, crocodile sighting in Australia’s north-east
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An aerial view shows flooding caused by heavy rain and water gushing through the Barron River, in Cairns, Queensland, on Dec 18.
PHOTO: REUTERS
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SYDNEY – Floods caused by heavy rain in the wake of Tropical Cyclone Jasper cut off several towns popular with tourists in Australia’s north-east along the Great Barrier Reef on Dec 18, with a crocodile captured from a storm drain.
Jasper dumped months’ worth of rain in the far north of Queensland state at the weekend, forcing some people to flee their homes and crowd on rooftops to escape fast-rising rivers.
“The problem is, the rain won’t stop and until it eases up, we can’t get aerial support into remote places,” the state’s premier, Dr Steven Miles, told ABC Television.
“We see a lot of natural disasters, and this is just about the worst I can remember.”
Jasper was downgraded to a tropical low after leaving a trail of destruction across the state last week.
In Ingham, a town of about 5,000 inundated by floods, conservation officials captured a 2.8m-long crocodile in a storm drain by a petrol station, media clips showed.
Crocodile sightings in north Queensland are more common in rivers, lagoons and swamps in rural areas.
Cairns, the gateway town to the Great Barrier Reef and home to more than 150,000 people, received around 600mm of rain over 40 hours through the early morning of Dec 18. That is more than triple the December mean of 182mm.
All flights from Cairns airport were cancelled on Dec 18, with footage on social media showing planes partially submerged on the tarmac.
Water pumps have been draining water since the day before, but “it’s still not keeping up with the volume of water that came in”, Cairns Airport chief executive Richard Barker told Sky News.
Mr Dan, a resident living just north of Cairns Airport, told ABC Radio he had to shelter on his kitchen bench for around four hours before being taken to a house where 30 people were waiting on the roof as they waited for rescue boats.
“Kids, elderly people, dogs and cats on this poor bloke’s roof who just had brand-new solar panels installed... it was a very harrowing journey navigating the very fast-flowing water and dodging debris,” he said.
El Nino influence
Jasper lashed the far north regions of Queensland state last week, leaving a trail of destruction.
PHOTO: REUTERS
Weather officials forecast more rain, as Jasper is likely to persist through Dec 18, with some regions expected to get 300mm of rain within six hours. Major flood warnings have gone out, with rivers set to break records dating to 1977.
More than 14,000 properties across the region are still without power.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said Australian defence forces had been put on standby for rescue and relief efforts.
Australia is now enduring an El Nino phenomenon, which can provoke extreme weather phenomena – from wildfires to tropical cyclones and prolonged droughts.
As the country’s north-east battles floods, the south-east, in contrast, is on alert for bush fires, with temperatures expected to top 40 deg C on Dec 19 in some suburbs of Sydney, capital of New South Wales. REUTERS
