Swollen rivers are forcing more evacuations in the Australian state of Queensland, where floods have caused billions of dollars in damage across an area the size of France and Germany. About 1,200 houses have been inundated and 4,000 residents evacuated in the state’s worst flooding in 50 years, according to the Queensland government. Water levels are rising in St George, a town of 3,500 people about 500 kilometers (310 miles) inland from the state capital, Brisbane, and may peak early next week, the Bureau of Meteorology said on its website.
“I don’t want a second wasted in the huge recovery and rebuilding task before us,” state Premier Anna Bligh said yesterday after holding an emergency Cabinet meeting. She appointed a senior army officer to lead the effort and told reporters the disaster was “on an unprecedented scale.”
The Queensland government says floods are affecting about a million square kilometers of the state, which is Australia’s largest coal exporter and accounts for about 20 percent of the nation’s A$1.28 trillion ($1.28 trillion) economy. Record rainfall has closed mines and spoiled crops and may have a “significant impact” on the nation’s economy as exports are interrupted, according to Donald McGauchie, a Reserve Bank of Australia board member.
Bligh, who told reporters yesterday the cost of rebuilding damaged infrastructure may run into billions of dollars, named Major General Mick Slater, a Commander of the First Division, to head a new flood recovery taskforce. The flooding may cost more than A$5 billion, the Australian Financial Review reported today, citing Bligh.
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