Victoria towns brace for floods
Source: Agencies |
January 25, 2011, Tuesday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
AN inland sea bigger than Paris - fed by weeks of heavy rains that have swamped -eastern Australia - was moving through Victoria state across a tangle of swollen rivers yesterday, threatening rural communities.
Emergency services were focusing their efforts on Swan Hill, a town 340 kilometers northwest of the Victorian capital of Melbourne, where the Lodden and Murray rivers meet. Floodwaters are expected to peak there midweek when the sea arrives, the State Emergency Service said.
Volunteers have spent the past week piling tens of thousands of sandbags around the community, a town of 10,000 people, Mayor Greg Cruickshank said yesterday.
"We're nearly to the point to where we are as prepared as we can be," Cruickshank said. "If there happens to be inundation, it certainly won't be for lack of trying."
Australia's deadly flooding crisis began with record rains in November that left huge parts of the northeast state of Queensland under water, killing 30 people, damaging or destroying 30,000 homes and businesses and causing at least US$3 billion in -damage to crops and lost coal exports. The state capital and the country's third-largest city, Brisbane, was inundated by floodwater for days.
Deputy Prime Minister Wayne Swan said in a statement on Sunday that the floods will rank as one of the most costly natural disasters in Australian history and its impact on the economy will be felt for years.
The government will announce its first cost estimates on Friday, he added.
Emergency services were focusing their efforts on Swan Hill, a town 340 kilometers northwest of the Victorian capital of Melbourne, where the Lodden and Murray rivers meet. Floodwaters are expected to peak there midweek when the sea arrives, the State Emergency Service said.
Volunteers have spent the past week piling tens of thousands of sandbags around the community, a town of 10,000 people, Mayor Greg Cruickshank said yesterday.
"We're nearly to the point to where we are as prepared as we can be," Cruickshank said. "If there happens to be inundation, it certainly won't be for lack of trying."
Australia's deadly flooding crisis began with record rains in November that left huge parts of the northeast state of Queensland under water, killing 30 people, damaging or destroying 30,000 homes and businesses and causing at least US$3 billion in -damage to crops and lost coal exports. The state capital and the country's third-largest city, Brisbane, was inundated by floodwater for days.
Deputy Prime Minister Wayne Swan said in a statement on Sunday that the floods will rank as one of the most costly natural disasters in Australian history and its impact on the economy will be felt for years.
The government will announce its first cost estimates on Friday, he added.
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