. Earth Science News .
SHAKE AND BLOW
Snakes, crocodiles threaten flood-hit Australia town

Torrential rains leave northeast Australia under water
Rockhampton, Australia (AFP) Jan 4, 2011 - Weeks of heavy rains have flooded a vast area of northeast Australia, causing 10 deaths and millions of dollars of damage to homes, crops and roads.

Here is a timeline of the floods in Queensland which have stretched to an area the size of France and Germany combined:

September-November 2010: Much of eastern Australia, including Queensland, experiences its wettest spring on record, soaking crops and filling water catchments after years of drought.

December 3: The first of a series of heavy rainfalls hits central Queensland, causing flooding and crop and infrastructure damage in Emerald, a town west of the coastal city of Rockhampton.

December 8: Floodwaters claim their fourth life when a 15-year-old boy drowns after jumping into a fast-flowing river. Three other people have already died after being trapped in their cars by fast-flowing floodwaters.

December 10-13: Central Queensland is again hit with torrential rains, causing localised flooding and damage and forcing the closure of a coal mine. The death toll climbs to five, after a 17-year-old girl drowns after getting her foot stuck between rocks as waters rose around her.

December 19-20: Drenching rains hit the state for a third time in less than a month, again causing flooding. A 20-year-old man dies after jumping into the Brisbane River during the heavy rains.

December 23: Queensland's weather bureau predicts heavy rain and flooding during the holiday period, warning that many river catchments are so thoroughly soaked that further rain will quickly flow into rivers and streams.

December 25: Tropical Cyclone Tasha makes landfall near Gordonvale south of Cairns in the state's far north in the early hours of Christmas Day, bringing rainfall of 150-250 mm.

December 28: After six more days of constant rain, disaster is declared for the southern Queensland towns of Chinchilla, Theodore and Dalby, where flooding prompts mass evacuations. A 50-year-old man dies after being swept off a footbridge by floodwaters.

December 30: The town of Bundaberg north of Brisbane experiences it worst flooding in decades, with about 300 homes inundated.

January 1: The deluge rushes from soaked inland areas towards the sea, cutting off the airport at Rockhampton.

January 2: The government describes the scale of the floods now affecting 22 cities and towns as "biblical" as police recover the body of a woman whose car was swept from the road in heavy flooding.

January 3: Residents of Rockhampton flee their homes as the city of 75,000 is almost entirely cut off by rising floodwaters after its Fitzroy River breaks its banks. The military works to rush supplies to the town where more than 200 homes are already under water.

The raging waters claim two more lives, when a man drowns when his car is washed into a flooded creek and the body of another swept from a small boat is recovered.

January 4: Rockhampton anxiously waits for its floodwaters to peak as the communities of St George and Surat to the south brace for record flooding.

by Staff Writers
Rockhampton, Australia (AFP) Jan 4, 2011
Australian residents fled their homes and sandbagged properties Tuesday as a major town was threatened by a worsening flood disaster which unleashed a plague of snakes and crocodiles.

Tens of thousands of people in Rockhampton braced for complete isolation as waters which have inundated an area bigger than France and Germany, and closed the town's airport and railway, lapped at the last remaining road link.

Rumours of crocodile sightings swept the besieged cattle-farming centre northeast of Brisbane, population 75,000, while snakes up to two metres (6.5 feet) long were spotted around the town centre.

The snakes, including highly venomous taipans, brown snakes and red-bellied blacks, are climbing trees and hiding in people's houses as they search for dry refuge, residents said.

"The snakes are a massive problem, I've shut all the doors because they're coming in," said Suzanne Miller, owner of the Pioneer Hotel pub, adding that her mother was "almost killed" by a brown snake.

"She is living on a boat near here and it was curled round the rope," Miller said. "She could feel the tongue flicking on to her face to test how far away it was, ready to bite, and then it jumped into her lap."

Miller said her mother's husband used a stick to flick the snake into the water, adding that the boat almost capsized as the pair leaped around and screamed in panic.

Emergency officials warned that the snakes were aggressive, while crocodiles flushed from rivers by the rising floods could easily be mistaken for debris.

"(Snakes are) in their mating season and they've been flushed out of their environment... snakes are very, very cranky right now," State Emergency Service (SES) operations director Scott Mahaffey said.

"(And) the problem with crocodiles now is it's very, very hard to pick (them out) with the amount of debris," he added. One SES volunteer told AFP he had seen "two cops hightailing it out of the water with a croc going past".

Thousands of poisonous cane toads were also spotted around Rockhampton while authorities say the town will also be hit by sandflies and disease-carrying mosquitoes breeding in the standing water.

About 200 people have evacuated on foot or by boat, including two pregnant women who went into labour. Some 200 homes are already flooded with the Fitzroy River bisecting town expected to peak at 9.4 metres on Wednesday or Thursday.

"I know people around here are pretty tough, but if your house gets smashed up pretty bad and you have lost all of your kids' presents (it's difficult)," Mahaffey said.

Rockhampton, 500 kilometres (300 miles) from Brisbane and a hub for the farming and coal-mining region, is now the focus for what officials call "biblical" floods affecting 200,000 people across Queensland state.

Weeks of heavy rains have swollen rivers to record levels, deluging mines and farms, washing away bridges and forcing military evacuations of entire towns by helicopter.

Ten people have died trying to negotiate fast-running waters in vehicles, swimming or on foot over the past month, while the disaster is expected to cost several billions of dollars (several billion US).

Flooded mines and railways and closed ports have hammered Queensland's all-important production of hard coking coal, much of it bound for urbanising Asia's steel mills.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton expressed condolences Monday for the dead and offered aid, while neighbouring New Zealand promised to send an emergency response team.

In Rockhampton, the military trucked in supplies and police frog-marched one reluctant resident from his home, after the dwelling was considered too dangerous to remain in as the waters rose.

Other parts of the state are already cleaning up after the worst of the flooding passed, but officials warn relief and recovery operations could last for weeks.

Meanwhile, the worst is yet to hit the southern Queensland town of St George, which has begun evacuating residents and strengthening levees to keep out waters expected to peak on Sunday or Monday.



Share This Article With Planet Earth
del.icio.usdel.icio.us DiggDigg RedditReddit
YahooMyWebYahooMyWeb GoogleGoogle FacebookFacebook



Related Links
Bringing Order To A World Of Disasters
When the Earth Quakes
A world of storm and tempest



Memory Foam Mattress Review
Newsletters :: SpaceDaily :: SpaceWar :: TerraDaily :: Energy Daily
XML Feeds :: Space News :: Earth News :: War News :: Solar Energy News


SHAKE AND BLOW
Australian military rushes supplies to town cut off by flood
Rockhampton, Australia (AFP) Jan 4, 2011
The Australian military prepared Tuesday to step up efforts to supply the city of Rockhampton, which has been cut off by the rising waters. Up to 200,000 people are estimated to have been hit by the fast-flowing waters that have inundated 22 rural towns in the country's northeast, across an area the size of France and Germany. Early Tuesday the Australian Bureau of Meteorology issued sev ... read more







SHAKE AND BLOW
Natural disasters killed 295,000 in 2010: reinsurer

Adopted Haitian children fly in to Paris on Christmas Eve

Plane carrying adopted Haitian children arrives in France

Adoptive parents arrive in Haiti to fetch children

SHAKE AND BLOW
iPhone alarm glitch leaves users fuming

Impregnating Plastics With Carbon Dioxide

Skype brings video calls to iPhone, iPod, iPad

Tablets galore on tap at major CES gadget fest

SHAKE AND BLOW
U.K. rivers cleanest in a century

Japan to step up mineral exploration in Pacific: report

Looking At Beavers' Role In River Restoration

Growing Hypoxic Zones Reduce Habitat For Billfish And Tuna

SHAKE AND BLOW
Polar Bears No Longer On Thin Ice

H.K. duck's epic Arctic trip sheds light on migration

Obama gives 'lump of coal' to polar bears: activists

Polar bear status at heart of climate war

SHAKE AND BLOW
How Does Your Green Roof Garden Grow

New Research Contains Solutions To Common Pear Disease

Climate change a threat to Assam tea

Genetic Relationship Between Hungarian And Turkish Apricots Confirmed

SHAKE AND BLOW
Heavy rains kill eight in Philippines: govt

Earthquake shakes Chile, no injuries reported

Australian military rushes supplies to town cut off by flood

Short respite but worst of Australian floods 'not over'

SHAKE AND BLOW
African migrants feared drowned off Yemen

West Africa faces dilemma over I.Coast military plan

Bashir says door open to peace in Darfur

W.African defence chiefs agree to eject Gbagbo if talks fail

SHAKE AND BLOW
Designer Probiotics Could Reduce Obesity

The Ideal Temperature For Keeping Fungi Away And Hunger At Bay

You Are What Your Father Ate

'Living pigment' in rock art discovered


The content herein, unless otherwise known to be public domain, are Copyright 1995-2010 - SpaceDaily. AFP and UPI Wire Stories are copyright Agence France-Presse and United Press International. ESA Portal Reports are copyright European Space Agency. All NASA sourced material is public domain. Additional copyrights may apply in whole or part to other bona fide parties. Advertising does not imply endorsement,agreement or approval of any opinions, statements or information provided by SpaceDaily on any Web page published or hosted by SpaceDaily. Privacy Statement