Welcome Guest [Log In] [Register]
Welcome to Natural Hazards Forum. We hope you enjoy your visit.


You're currently viewing our forum as a guest. This means you are limited to certain areas of the board and there are some features you can't use. If you join our community, you'll be able to access member-only sections, and use many member-only features such as customizing your profile, sending personal messages, and voting in polls. Registration is simple, fast, and completely free.


Join our community!


If you're already a member please log in to your account to access all of our features:

Username:   Password:
Add Reply
Major floods hammer northern Australia
Topic Started: 28 Jan 2013, 12:55 AM (77 Views)
skibboy
Member Avatar

27 JANUARY 2013

Major floods hammer northern Australia

Posted Image
This file photo shows the view from a car making its way through heavy rain in Cardwell, in the far north of Australia's Queensland, on March 8, 2011. Hundreds of homes have been evacuated in northeastern Australia as storms pelted Queensland state on Sunday, with the army put on standby.

Posted Image
Graphic showing northeastern Australia's Queensland state where hundreds of homes were evacuated on Sunday due to major flooding.

AFP - A man was missing in raging floodwaters and hundreds of homes were evacuated in northeastern Australia as storms pelted Queensland state on Sunday, with the army put on standby as the weather worsened.

Towns and cities devastated by floods in Queensland two years ago which claimed 35 lives were bracing for another devastating inundation as ex-tropical cyclone Oswald hammered the state.

A 27-year-old man was missing after he attempted to cross a swollen creek near Gympie north of Brisbane and a swift-water rescue team lost their boat trying to retrieve him, according to the town's mayor Ron Dyne.

Dyne said a number of people had taken refuge on the roofs of their homes awaiting rescue from the rising waters, with the centre of Gympie expected to flood later Sunday.

"At this stage, we've got major concerns," said Dyne.

"Everything's occurred rather rapidly given the amount of rain we've had."

A woman was airlifted to safety in Biloela, about 600 kilometres northwest of Brisbane, after spending eight hours in floodwaters clinging to the branches of a tree.

Also in the north, major flooding was expected in the towns of Bundaberg and Gladstone, with hundreds of homes and businesses at risk, some of which had only just been rebuilt following the 2011 floods.

At least one international flight was diverted from Brisbane to Sydney due to the high winds, and Qantas has cancelled a number of domestic services.

About 900 homes had been evacuated in the Gladstone region and about 100 backpackers were sheltering in a community centre at Rainbow Beach after being removed from Fraser Island, according to Dyne.

Queensland Premier Campbell Newman said the army was on standby to assist in the unfolding emergency.

"The challenge now is that we've got multiple events going on," Newman told reporters, adding that he had spoken with Prime Minister Julia Gillard.

"It's likely that we're going to need members of the Australian Defence Force to help with both potentially rescuing people or protecting people, but certainly with clean-up operations."

The weather bureau said there had been damaging winds and reports of "possible tornado activity" throughout southeastern Queensland overnight and warned that further storms were likely.

Disaster management officials said there had been more than 800 emergency calls in the 24 hours to 5am on Sunday, mostly for lost or damaged roofs or requests for sandbags to protect property.

Cyclones and floods are common in Australia's northeast during the warmer summer months.

A massive inundation of Queensland in 2011 killed 35 people and brought Brisbane to a standstill for several days, swamping some 30,000 homes.

Source: Posted Image
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
skibboy
Member Avatar

29 JANUARY 2013

Military called in as deadly floods batter Australia

Posted Image
A New South Wales State Emergency Service worker stands on a flooded road on the outskirts of Lismore, January 28, 2013. Australia ramped up its military response to deadly floodwaters rising in the country's sodden northeast Tuesday which have killed four people and displaced or isolated tens of thousands.

Posted Image
Graphic showing places in Australia's Queensland and New South Wales reporting casualties, property damage and evacuations from flooding this week.

Posted Image
Floodwaters race across the Oxenford - Tamborine road as severe floods threaten to inundate thousands of properties in Australia's Gold Coast on January 28, 2013.

AFP - Australia ramped up its military response to deadly floodwaters rising in the country's sodden northeast Tuesday which have killed four people and displaced or isolated tens of thousands.

Storms triggered by ex-tropical cyclone Oswald have claimed four lives -- the most recent a three-year-old boy killed by a falling tree -- as heavy rains have brought flooding to the states of Queensland and New South Wales.

The sugar farming town of Bundaberg waited anxiously for the swollen Burnett River to peak at a record 9.6 metres (32 feet), with officials saying some 2,000 homes and 300 businesses were already flooded.

Queensland Police Minister Jack Dempsey said about 7,500 residents had been displaced by the floodwaters, with 1,000 people plucked from the roofs of their homes in daring evening rescues after the river broke its banks late Monday.

Premier Campbell Newman toured Bundaberg from the air and said it was an "extraordinary" scene, paying tribute to military rescue teams who toiled until midnight using night vision equipment.

"I think the bravery of the air crew and the helicopters, both civilian and defence force who worked all yesterday afternoon and into the night evacuating people in quite difficult circumstances is what saved the day," said Newman.

"We did have a situation of fast-rising floodwaters and people being very rapidly isolated on ever-diminishing islands of ground."

Prime Minister Julia Gillard said four military helicopters, 100 troops and two Hercules transport aircraft had been deployed to the emergency, with the evacuation of patients from Bundaberg's hospital to Brisbane a priority.

"We'll also be making available one of the huge aircraft, the C17, to transport equipment that is needed to Bundaberg for the Queensland Fire and Rescue Service and for the Queensland Ambulance Service," Gillard said.

There was some flooding in the state capital Brisbane, home to about two million people, which was brought to a standstill for several days by a huge inundation in 2011 that swamped 30,000 homes and killed more than 30 people.

Brisbane mayor Graham Quirk said some city businesses had been swamped for a second time but there were no reports of homes flooding inside, with the Brisbane River peaking lower than had been forecast.

Insurers had already received some 6,100 claims from Queensland worth Aus$72 million (US$75 million), according to the Insurance Council of Australia.

Oswald brought wild storms to neighbouring New South Wales overnight, with floodwaters isolating 23,000 people and prompting authorities to order 2,100 people to evacuate from the town of Grafton.

Another 7,000 were put on notice that they may have to follow suit.

"We are faced today with an unprecedented rise in the Clarence River in Grafton and no doubt downstream," mayor Richie Williamson told reporters at a briefing in Grafton.

"On Thursday and Friday we were nearly in drought conditions. Here we are on Tuesday morning talking about the biggest flood on the history books."

Wild weather ripped up trees up and brought dangerous surf conditions in Sydney, with waves of up to 10 metres reported.

Source: Posted Image
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
skibboy
Member Avatar

Australians clean up after floods

As the clean-up begins, some residents complained about dwindling food supplies.

MILITARY PERSONNEL HEADED to flood-ravaged northeast Australia to help clean up the floods that damaged thousands of homes and businesses and left some communities short of power, food and water.

The death toll from the flood crisis rose to five today after police discovered a man’s body in a car submerged in a creek.

Another man who vanished while travelling through the same area earlier this week is still missing.

Flood waters were receding in most places, bringing relief to a region that was battered by worse floods just two years ago.

But there were concerns about food and water shortages in some communities and thousands were without power.

Around 120 soldiers were en route to the hardest-hit city of Bundaberg in Queensland, 385 kilometres north of Brisbane.

The flooding, caused by the remnants of a tropical cyclone, forced around 7,500 Bundaberg residents from their homes, inundated 2,000 houses and 200 businesses with murky water and prompted helicopter evacuations of 1,000 people.

Posted Image
(AP Photo/NSW State Emergency Service, Samantha Cantwell)

As the clean-up began, some residents complained about dwindling food supplies.

“People were almost coming to blows this morning at the local shop fighting over bread rolls,” said Chris Pasky of Moore Park, just outside Bundaberg. “We’ve got a baby in the house we can’t feed. We’ve just been forgotten.”

In Brisbane, residents were warned to conserve water after muddy floodwaters put pressure on the city’s water treatment plants.

Queensland Premier Campbell Newman told Australian Broadcasting Corp. that stocks of bottled water were ready to be distributed to residents if the reservoirs run dry.

In other areas, officials scrambled to deliver supplies to residents still cut off by the slowly receding waters.

“We’re discovering people who are isolated, without power, without water, and we’re going to be getting some long-life milk and bread supplies in through four-wheel drive later today,” said Pam Parker, mayor of Logan City, south of Brisbane.

Queensland residents suffered through the worst flooding Australia had seen in decades in late 2010 and early 2011, when flood waters from heavy rain killed 35 people, damaged or destroyed 30,000 homes and businesses and left Brisbane under water for days.

Australia has been suffering through a summer of weather extremes, with blistering temperatures and dry conditions igniting hundreds of wildfires across the southern half of the country.
- AP

Source: Posted Image
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
1 user reading this topic (1 Guest and 0 Anonymous)
« Previous Topic · Flooding · Next Topic »
Add Reply

Skin by OverTheBelow