Storm - Further severe flooding in Australia
Heavy rainfall following the tropical storm "Jasper" continues to keep north-eastern Australia on tenterhooks. According to Australian media, the coastal city of Cairns in Queensland was cut off from the surrounding area. Access roads to the north, south and west were flooded and the airport had to be closed. Parked airplanes were submerged in water. "Cairns is now an island in outer North Queensland," reported the ABC broadcaster.
"This flood is the most severe flood ever recorded in Cairns - and it is considerably more severe," hydrologist Jonathan Nott from James Cook University told the broadcaster. It is up to 40 percent higher than the previous record set in 1977.
The community of Wujal Wujal north of Cairns was to be completely evacuated, according to a report by the Australian news agency AAP on Monday. A group of people there, including a seven-year-old child, had held out on the roof of a hospital. In some parts of North Queensland, a total of more than 1000 liters of rain per square meter had fallen. Australia's Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said that the army would send additional forces to the flood areas.
According to the AAP, a saltwater crocodile was captured in the small community of Ingham. The 2.80-meter-long animal was spotted swimming through the streets in the floodwater.
The tropical cyclone "Jasper" reached Australia's north-east coast last Wednesday. Although it then weakened into a low-pressure system, it continued to cover the region with record-breaking rainfall. This should ease on Monday and the depression should move further northwards. It is now the summer rainy season in the tropical latitudes south of the equator.
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Source: www.stern.de
