SYDNEY (AFP) – Rescuers flew residents out of a remote Australian town by helicopter yesterday as record-high floods rose rapidly and authorities issued a “final alert” to evacuate.
Police said helicopters and other aircraft had already flown out 53 vulnerable people over the past few days from the small community of Burketown in north-eastern Australia.
Murky water lapped at the sides of buildings in the town, which lies 1,600 kilometres northwest of the Queensland capital Brisbane and is usually home to about 200 people.
The swollen Albert River transformed wide areas of land around the town into lakes, with only the tops of trees visible, aerial images provided by emergency services showed.
Police said about half of the town’s houses had been flooded.
Only about 100 people remained in the Queensland town yesterday and helicopters were ferrying more people to safety, state police said.
“At the moment the water movements are unpredictable and are rising at a rapid pace,” the local Burke Shire Council said in a “final alert” to residents.
“We strongly encourage residents to evacuate,” it said, telling them to pack a bag and warning there would be no evacuation flights.
Police also urged remaining residents to get out.
The elderly and young children were a priority for evacuation, Queensland police said in a statement, adding that sewerage systems had been “compromised” and power would also be cut off.
“It is not safe for people to remain,” police said.
Following heavy rains, which have since eased, the Albert River has topped a March 2011 record of 6.78 metres, Queensland’s bureau of meteorology said.
The river rose to over seven metres on Friday, and is expected to peak today, the forecaster said.
Australia has been lashed by heavy rain in the past two years, driven by back-to-back La Nina climate cycles over the Pacific.
But the country’s bureau of meteorology has predicted drier and warmer weather in the months ahead as La Nina nears its end.
