“Flood waters swept through vast areas of northeastern Australia Saturday, threatening to inundate thousands more homes in a disaster one official said was of “biblical proportions”.
As Queen Elizabeth II sent her “sincere sympathies” to Queenslanders who rang in a damp new year, helicopters were being used to deliver food and other supplies to isolated towns.
Up to 200,000 people have been affected by the floods, which have hurt the nation’s lucrative mining industry and cut off major highways as the water rushes through sodden inland regions to the sea.
“In many ways, it is a disaster of biblical proportions,” Queensland State Treasurer Andrew Fraser told reporters in flood-hit Bundaberg.”
BBC reports that damage is over AU $1billion.
The size of the affected area is equal to France and German combined.
22 towns have been inundated, the country’s major sugar export port Bundaberg has been closed, Queensland’s major coal mines and coal export port have been shut, and companies like Anglo-American and Rio Tinto have been forced to slow down production, according to The Telegraph.
I came across a bit more about that:
“…have lived in North Queensland (“Qld”) most of my life.
flooding started before Christmas.
torrential downpours.
The strangest thing is – we had thunder and lightening starting in the morning and continuing for most of the day – for about 3 days – this is very unusual and rare – I have lived here for 17 years and can only recall afternoon storms. I had to have the lights on in the house in the middle of the day…can you appreciate how bright it is here in summer (compared to summer in Europe or London).”
http://www.survivalblog.com/2011/01/letter_re_the_queensland_flood.html