Mop up operations likely to last months

RISING floods plagued large parts of eastern Australia yest as emergency workers battled to restore water and electricity in cyclone-hit areas, with the recovery efforts expected to last several months.

At least two people died and several were missing after torrential rain inundated large areas of Queensland and New South Wales (NSW) states, flooding homes and forcing the evacuation of tens of thousands of people.

Category four Cyclone Debbie smashed into Queensland on Tuesday between Bowen and Airlie, ripping up trees and causing widespread damage that is still being assessed. It was downgraded to a tropical low as it tracked southeast through the week, packing high winds and dumping huge volumes of rain all down the east coast to Sydney before blowing out over the Tasman Sea.

Even as skies began to clear, numerous towns were still on flood alert and some regions remain under water.

Logan, just south of Brisbane, reflected the varied situation, with rising floods affecting some areas while other parts swung into clean-up mode as waters receded.

“This is unprecedented for us,” Logan city mayor Luke Smith said, warning that his city was still “in flux” with one key river remaining at high levels. “The sky is the limit at this stage about what that means,” he added about the potential damage bill.

In Rockhampton in centraleast Queensland, residents braced for the biggest floods experienced since 1954, with peak levels set to be reached late Wednesday or early Thursday.

“Debbie is not done with us,” Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said when visiting Rockhampton on Saturday.

“This one is going to be a big one,” she added yesterday.

The torrential rain also wreaked havoc south of the Queensland border in New South Wales, bringing severe floods to several towns. The bodies of two women were found in the state on Friday. Another three people were confirmed dead — two in NSW and one in Queensland — on Saturday, but police were still investigating whether their deaths were floodrelated.

There were also fears for three other people missing in flood-hit areas in Queensland, with police searching for them yesterday.

The military and emergency personnel were working to restore essential services such as water and electricity in towns that were in the direct path of Debbie in northern Queensland.

More than 500 homes were destroyed by the cyclone, while almost 30 000 properties in that region remained without power, the state government said. — AFP