Australia’s Queensland hit by massive floods
Floods swamped parts of the Australian state of Queensland on Friday, covering pastureland and cutting off towns as swollen rivers inundated about 200 homes.
"There's water as far as the eye can see," said James Wyld by phone from the bar of the Julia Creek Hotel in western Queensland's grazing country.
A disaster was declared further east in the coastal cane farming towns of Ingham and Halifax, where television pictures showed the swollen Herbert River rushing over the main highway.
No injuries were reported though 225 homes around Ingham were flooded, authorities said, and 72 children on a school camp north of Ingham were isolated by the rising water, Queensland state premier Annastacia Palaszczuk told reporters in Brisbane.
"They are safe, they are in good spirits," she said.
The Herbert River level, its highest since 2009, was expected to begin receding overnight, but major flood warnings remained in place for at least half a dozen rivers statewide, according to the Bureau of Meteorology.
Water could take weeks to recede from the flatter country covered further west, where it has been welcomed in a region gripped by severe drought.
"It's been good rain, but not everywhere's got those good falls," Bureau of Meteorology senior hydrologist Andy Barnes told Reuters.
"Whether that's enough to really break what's been years and years and years of drought is probably not the case I suspect."
(Source: Reuters)
Iran’s unprecedented strikes against Israel ‘legitimate’: Malaysia PM
Australia police arrest man after reports of stabbing in western Sydney
Six killed, several injured in Sydney stabbing spree
VIDEO | Press TV's news headline
Explosion heard near Iran’s central city of Isfahan: Report
‘Iran retaliation against Israel ensured no aggression would go unanswered’
US vetoes Palestinian request for full UN membership
Iran sufficed to strike only part of Israel’s military positions: FM to UN chief
IRGC: Israel’s Dimnoa nuclear reactor not among Op. True Promise’s targets
VIDEO | West Asia awakens
'Stop any further Israeli adventurism,' Iran FM tells Security Council
This makes it easy to access the Press TV website
