Australia floods: new storms hit flood region

Floods and storms kill 39 in rural South Africa
JOHANNESBURG - South African authorities say at least 39 people have died in Flooding and thunderstorms in the eastern part of the country. Provincial disaster management confirmed Friday that 26 people, including 4 Children, have died as a result of adverse weather conditions in the rural Eastern Cape province since mid-December. In neighboring KwaZulu-Natal province, police say six people drowned as a result of Flooding last week, in addition to seven people killed in a Lightning Strike ...

Storm 'to worsen Australia flood'
Why is Queensland flooded? More Heavy Rain is forecast for eastern Australia, threatening Flash Floods for communities where hundreds of homes are already under water. Forecasters predict central and southern Queensland will be worst hit by the latest deluge which will last into the weekend. In the city of Rockhampton about 500 homes were evacuated as the Fitzroy river peaked at 9.2m (30ft). The town of St George is braced for the Balonne river to peak by Sunday. About 1,200 homes across Queensl...

Floods and storms kill 39 in rural South Africa
JOHANNESBURG — South African authorities say at least 39 people have died in Flooding and thunderstorms in the eastern part of the country. Provincial disaster management confirmed Friday that 26 people, including 4 Children, have died as a result of adverse weather conditions in the rural Eastern Cape province since mid-December. In neighboring KwaZulu-Natal province, police say six people drowned as a result of Flooding last week, in addition to seven people killed in a lightning s...

Heavy rains hit Australia's flood-drenched northeast
Heavy rains threatened further Flooding in Australia's drenched northeast Thursday as besieged Rockhampton cut supplies to "irresponsible" residents who refused to leave water-bound homes. Torrential downpours could cause flash-flooding and worsen existing floods, the weather bureau said, as water levels slowly started to recede in regional centre Rockhampton, a town virtually surrounded by a brown inland sea. Australia's coal-mining and farming belt near Brisbane is suffering "biblical" floods ...

Heavy rains hit Australia's flood-drenched northeast
Heavy rains brought more misery to Australia's flooded northeast Thursday as besieged Rockhampton cut supplies to "irresponsible" residents who refused to leave their water-bound homes. Torrential downpours could cause flash-flooding and worsen existing floods, the weather bureau said, as water levels slowly started to recede in regional centre Rockhampton, a town virtually surrounded by a brown inland sea. Australia's coal-mining and farming belt near Brisbane is suffering "biblical" floods acr...

Australian flood victims return to muddy homes
Australian Federal Minister for Home Affairs Brendan O'Connor surveys the flooded Fitzroy River in Rockhampton, Australia, Thursday, Jan. 6, 2011. Despite the fresh rains, the overflowing river in the inundated city of Rockhampton is slowly receding. Evacuated Victims began returning to homes caked in sludge on Friday as Australia's flood crisis eased, though one sandbagged town watched nervously as a swollen river level crept higher and forecasters warned of more rain. Officials said they were...

Flooded Australians return to mud and mess
BRISBANE, Australia — Residents of waterlogged northeast Australia returned to homes caked in sludge and nervously watched the skies for more rain Friday while waiting for swollen rivers to recede. The worst appeared to have passed from Flooding that covered an area the size of France and Germany in murky brown water for longer than a week, but torrents still posed dangers in partly-submerged towns in Queensland state and progress on assessing damage and rebuilding was slow. On Frida...

Floods threaten more Australian towns
ST. GEORGE, Australia, Jan. 7 (UPI) -- Another town in Queensland braced for floods Friday with more rain expected in the ravaged Australian state. In St. George, the Balonne River is forecast to crest Saturday above the record of 44 feet set last year, the Australian Broadcasting Corp. reported. About 30 homes are expected to be swamped, and thousands of sandbags are being filled. "I think it's reliving my time in Venice with the water just lapping outside our house and all we need now is a gon...

Australia floods cause possibly years of damage
By Daniel Munoz GLADSTONE, Australia | Thu Jan 6, 2011 9:58pm EST GLADSTONE, Australia (Reuters) - Australia's flood-stricken Coal Industry may face months of disruptions as reports emerge of key rail and road links being washed away, while some infrastructure may take years to repair, authorities said on Friday. "There are some aspects of the rebuilding of infrastructure that will take, potentially, years," Major-General Mick Slater, chief of the flood recovery operation in Queensland state,...

Australia: Crocs, snakes, and sewage add to floods travel chaos
Floods that have cut air, rail and road links to the Australian coastal city of Rockhampton are now threatening its sewage plant, and waters are still expected to rise another few feet before peaking today. Residents of Rockhampton made their way in boats through waters that reached waist-high in some areas yesterday but were warned not to wade since snakes and crocodiles could be lurking. A huge inland sea spawned by more than a week of Heavy Rain a ADVERTISEMENT cross Queensland state is ma...

Australia floods cause 'catastrophic' damage
ROCKHAMPTON, Australia -- Australia's record floods are causing catastrophic damage to infrastructure in the state of Queensland and have forced 75 percent of its Coal Mines, which fuel Asia's steel mills, to grind to a halt, Queensland's premier said on Wednesday. The worst Flooding in decades has affected an area the size of Germany and France, leaving towns virtual islands in a muddy inland sea, devastated crops, cut major rail and road links to coal ports, slashed exports and forced up world...

Australian floods spread, threaten Barrier Reef
Stumble This! Australia's disastrous floods have spread to 40 towns and are threatening the world-famous Great Barrier Reef as tonnes of sludge pour into the sea, officials and scientists said Wednesday. As anxious residents scrambled to build emergency levees and authorities counted billions of dollars in economic damage, researchers said the iconic reef's corals could be damaged by run-off from Australia's eastern coast. James Cook University researcher Michelle Devlin said floodwaters carryi...

Australian floods spread, threaten Barrier Reef
Australia's disastrous floods have spread to 40 towns and are threatening the world-famous Great Barrier Reef as tonnes of sludge pour into the sea, officials and scientists said Wednesday. As anxious residents scrambled to build emergency levees and authorities counted billions of US dollars in economic damage, researchers said the iconic reef's corals could be damaged by run-off from Australia's eastern coast. James Cook University researcher Michelle Devlin said floodwaters carrying debris an...

Flood a boon for Lake Mead
A flood that destroyed homes near Mesquite last month also delivered a welcome boost to Lake Mead. High flows on the Virgin River and its tributaries raised the level of the reservoir by about a foot and a half, according to rough projections from U.S. Bureau of Reclamation officials. That might not sound like a lot, but a foot and a half of water spread across the surface of the nation's largest man-made lake totals almost 150,000 acre-feet, enough to supply about 300,000 average homes for one ...

Flooded Queensland gets more heavy rain
BRISBANE, Australia, Jan. 6 (UPI) -- Heavy Rain fell in Australia's flooded Queensland state Thursday and officials said it could take a year for ravaged towns to recover. Once again, more rain was forecast. Water levels in the worst Flooding in a half century were expected to stay high in many areas for at least one more week, with forecasters predicting Flash Floods in communities this weekend where hundreds of homes are already underwater. At least 10 people have died in weather-related incid...

Australian mayor says flood recovery may take a year
A map showing areas in Queensland hit by flood waters. Tens of thousands of... It could take a year for Rockhampton to recover from disastrous floods, the Australian town's mayor said Thursday, as the waters threatened the neighbouring state of New South Wales. "I think that this could drag on for 12 months," Mayor Brad Carter said, adding that it would take three weeks before Rockhampton's airport reopened, even though the floods appeared to have peaked just below the expected level. "It look...

Australian mayor says flood recovery may take a year
It could take a year for Rockhampton to recover from disastrous floods, the Australian town's mayor said Thursday, as the waters threatened the neighbouring state of New South Wales. "I think that this could drag on for 12 months," Mayor Brad Carter said, adding that it would take three weeks before Rockhampton's airport reopened, even though the floods appeared to have peaked just below the expected level. "It looks like it's peaked, it's plateaued and it's showing signs of dropping," he told t...

Heavy floods leave at least 35 dead in Brazil
SAO PAULO - Authorities in Brazil say four people from the same family have died in a mudslide in the interior of Sao Paulo state, and civil defense officials say heavy Flooding have killed at least 35 people and forced more than 30,000 out of their homes across the country. Officials in the city of Jundiai said Thursday the four people, including two girls, died when their house collapsed because of a mudslide triggered by downpours. The worst hit state is Minas Gerais, where civil defens...

Global climate: Tough little girl
EL NIÑO, a periodic sloshing of warm water from west to east across the Pacific, gets its name—“the boy child”—because it is around Christmas that it warms the water off Peru. It is now understood to have far wider effects, leading to characteristic patterns of temperature, rainfall and drought around much of the world. El Niño’s female counterpart, La Niña—a cooler sloshing from east to west—is less well known, and less frequent. But it t...

Draining flooded Australia mines could take weeks
ROCKHAMPTON/PERTH, Australia (Reuters) - Australia's flood-stricken Coal Industry faced lengthy disruptions on Thursday, with one miner saying it could take weeks to drain its pits of water and a major port suspending export shipments because of a lack of coal. Floods have swamped mines in Queensland state, paralyzing operations that produce 35 percent of Australia's estimated 259 million tonnes of exportable coal. Australia contributes two-thirds of global coking-coal exports, needed to make s...

Flooded Australian city faces long wait to dry out
Australia put an army general in charge of flood recovery efforts today after weeks of Heavy Rains deluged the country's northeast, crippling the area's economy, including the Coal Mining industry. Floodwaters have forced most of Queensland state's Coal Mines to shut and some may not restart production for months, ministers said at an emergency Cabinet meeting in Brisbane, the state capital. After the meeting, Queensland Premier Anna Bligh announced that Major General Mick Slater would lead th...

Heavy floods leave at least 35 dead in Brazil
Authorities in Brazil say four people from the same family have died in a mudslide in the interior of Sao Paulo state, and civil defense officials say heavy Flooding have killed at least 35 people and forced more than 30,000 out of their homes across the country. Officials in the city of Jundiai said Thursday the four people, including two girls, died when their house collapsed because of a mudslide triggered by downpours. The worst hit state is Minas Gerais, where civil defense authorities said...

Australia floods cause possibly years of damage
GLADSTONE, Australia (Reuters) - Australia's flood-stricken Coal Industry may face months of disruptions as reports emerge of key rail and road links being washed away, while some infrastructure may take years to repair, authorities said on Friday. "There are some aspects of the rebuilding of infrastructure that will take, potentially, years," Major-General Mick Slater, chief of the flood recovery operation in Queensland state, told a news conference in Rockhampton. "We still don't know what it...

New storms soak flood-weary Australian communities
BRISBANE, Australia - Cleanup crews toiled under more pounding rains Thursday to clear mountains of debris in flood-ravaged communities across northeastern Australia, as one mayor warned it could take his city up to a year to recover from the worst Flooding in decades. Officials were only beginning to see the scope of the damage as river levels across Queensland state started dropping despite new thunderstorms. Floodwaters were expected to stay high in many areas for at least another week,...

New storms soak flood-weary Australian communities
BRISBANE, Australia (AP) — Cleanup crews toiled under more pounding rains Thursday to clear mountains of debris in flood-ravaged communities across northeastern Australia, as one mayor warned it could take his city up to a year to recover from the worst Flooding in decades. Officials were only beginning to see the scope of the damage as river levels across Queensland state started dropping despite new thunderstorms. Floodwaters were expected to stay high in many areas for at least another ...