The worst flooding to hit Australia in a half-century appeared to have peaked in the country's northeast on Wednesday, but residents of one coastal city were warned that it may be weeks before the waters recede.
The mayor of Rockhampton, the last major town inundated by the slow-moving flood in Queensland state, said the city appeared to have been spared any further damage as the chocolate-brown floodwaters were holding below their predicted peak. The Fitzroy River, which flows through Rockhampton, was at about 30 feet -- well above flood stage.
People are thinking ... 'We've got no money, no crop, we've really got no future.'
"It looks like it may have stabilized," Mayor Brad Carter said. He added that the waters from what residents were calling a "100-year flood" were expected to stay at the current level for about two days.
"Then as it starts to drop and flatten out, it is likely to be about 10 days or so that it could stay at about [28 feet], which indicates that we will have significant water inundation for the best part of ... two weeks," Carter said.
Oueensland Premier Anna Bligh, speaking to reporters Wednesday in Brisbane, said the damage from the floods was unprecedented and that the cost of cleanup could exceed $5 billion -- not counting the huge losses in crops and the estimated billions of dollars in lost revenue in the state’s coal industry.
Bligh also announced that an army general, Maj. Gen. Mick Slater, has been charged with leading the massive flood recovery effort.
More than 200,000 people in an area larger than Texas have been affected by the floods triggered by a week of torrential rains that began just before Christmas. In Queensland, some 1,200 homes have been inundated and nearly 11,000 others damaged. The churning water from the Fitzroy has swamped 200 homes and 100 businesses, and flooding in other parts of northeastern Australia has forced thousands to flee.
As the Queensland floodwaters worked their way downstream toward the ocean, water had receded from some of the flooded communities upstream. Residents in those areas were eager to return home and start the cleanup, but officials said people would not be allowed to return until electricity and water had been restored.
Helicopter-borne specialists arrived in the small town of Theodore on Wednesday to check the safety of power, water and sewage plants but had not yet given people the green light to return.
Ron Bock, who was among the 300 residents who evacuated their homes, said people were frustrated by the delays. "The secret to getting your house clean is to get back before the mud goes hard and bakes on, and it makes it a lot easier," he said.
In Rockhampton, officials were still trying to determine when it would be safe to allow about 500 residents who fled to return. One problem: an influx of venomous snakes, flushed from their habitats and searching for dry ground amid the waters.
"It's pretty scary," Rockhampton resident Sonia Gilley told the Australian Broadcasting Corp. "There's a lot of power in that water, and we're a little worried about snakes because we've heard there are a lot of snakes coming ashore and on the ground."
The deluge also caused "catastrophic" damage to Queensland's transport systems, Bligh told ABC radio.
"People see the floodwaters coming down and say, 'That's my life about to be covered in silt again,' " Sen. Barnaby Joyce of the southern Queensland town of St. George, told Australia's Sky News. "People are thinking ... 'We've got no money, no crop, we've really got no future.' "
Queensland is a center of Australia's coal mining industry, and 40 mines have been shut because of the flooding. Some coal companies have begun to downgrade profit projections as a result. At an emergency Cabinet meeting in Brisbane, the state capital, ministers said floodwaters have forced most of Queensland's coal mines to shut and some may not restart production for months.
"It's going to take some months for some mines to be back to full operation," Resources Minister Stephen Robertson said. "We earn 'round about $100 million a day exporting coal to the rest of the world, and exports have been significantly restricted by the impact on infrastructure."
Despite the devastation, Rockhampton's mayor said residents were keeping their spirits up.
"We have a very resilient community," Carter said. "They're holding up very well. Many of the people that live in these low-lying areas have been through these flooding events before."
With reporting for NPR from Stuart Cohen and Neva Grant in Sydney. This story also contains material from The Associated Press.
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