Asia-Pacific News

Australian townsfolk told to flee floodwaters

Feb 5, 2012, 10:08 GMT

Queensland Premier Anna Bligh (L) talks to residents as they wait to be evacuated from the flood affected town of St George, Australia, 05 February 2012. EPA/DAN PELED

Sydney - Floodwaters bearing down on a small Queensland town in north-eastern Australia on Sunday forced the evacuation of its 3,800 residents.

St George, 500 kilometres west of Brisbane, is facing its third flood in as many years.

Queensland state officials invoked emergency powers and ordered people to leave the cattle-country town while the one road out remained open.

Monsoon rains in Australia's north-east have turned river systems into torrents and the plains into inland seas.

A temporary levee ringing the town is holding back floodwaters that are 5 kilometres wide and 7 metres deep.

Mayor Donna Stewart said the waters were rising more quickly than expected and that the Balonne river that runs through town could peak 1.5 metres higher than its previous record.

She said it was too late for engineers to do more work on the flood defences and sent police officers from door to door in the town.

The floodwaters that ravaged St George in 2010 peaked at 13.5 metres. By Tuesday, the level of the Balonne River passing through town could be 15 metres.

Barnaby Joyce, who represents St George in the federal parliament, said the inundation could be catastrophic.

'If we have to evacuate the town, that's a whole new step,' he told national broadcaster ABC. 'There's been a little bit of panic in certain areas.'

Kylie Mulder and her husband, Jeff, said they would defy any order to leave and try and defend their home with the earthworks they have piled up around it.

'We're not running away,' she told Australia's AAP news agency. 'We haven't even finished the renovations after the other floods and this one is meant to be worse.'

At Charleville, a town of 3,250 people north of St George, the levee held against the Warrego River, which is now centimetres below its 7.6-metre peak. Around 600 people slept in the town's evacuation centre overnight.

The Maranoa River that runs through Mitchell and Roma is also below its peak of 10 metres. In Roma, a town of 6,00, over 200 people prepared for a third night in emergency shelters after 300 homes in the town were inundated.

In Roma the body of a woman whose car was swept off a flooded bridge was found. She is the first fatality in this flood. Her 7-year-old son, also in the car, survived.

The consecutive floods have sparked calls for St George, Roma, Charleville and other vulnerable towns to be disestablished and new settlements created on higher ground. Residents say it is regular flooding that maintains the fertility of what for months of the year are arid plains.