Surging floodwaters forced scores of people to evacuate their homes in northeastern Australia yesterday, officials said, as farmers described heavy rains as a mixed blessing after years of drought.
Worst hit by the rising waters was the central Queensland town of Emerald, where people left their homes for higher ground as the swollen Nogoa River threatened to inundate parts of the town.
"There's been about 120 people who have voluntarily relocated at the moment -- that happened last night and this morning," a State Emergency Services spokeswoman said. "But it's likely that a further 250 dwellings will be voluntarily evacuated this afternoon."
Emergency workers also carried out helicopter evacuations near Emerald after workers at the Ensham coalmine, about 40km east of the town, were cut off by the rising waters.
Elsewhere, floodwaters were threatening the southwestern town of Charleville, but officials were confident they would be contained.
Queensland state premier Anna Bligh said while the focus was on the major population centers of Emerald and Charleville, there were also "many, many, many properties that have been isolated" by the rising waters.
Large parts of Australia have been hit by heavy rains in recent weeks -- including the drought affected eastern states of Queensland in the north and Victoria in the south -- raising hopes that an end to the worst dry spell in living memory could be in sight.
But Queensland farmers said the latest deluge was a mixed blessing because it came at the cost of millions of dollars in lost crops and stock.
Brett De Hayr, head of the agricultural group AgForce, said the losses from the flooding could top A$1 billion (US$876 million).
"Long-term, it is undeniably going to be extremely positive, but it's just in the nature of these things that individuals are going to have some fairly significant losses to wear for a while," he said.
Tony Rayner, an official with Queensland's Department of Primary Industries, said the benefits of the floods would eventually offset the losses.
"Generally speaking, most producers have been in long-term drought situations -- some properties have been experiencing five to seven years of below average rainfall -- so this is a good start to drought recovery," he said.
But he said follow-up rains were needed next month and in March to break the drought in Queensland.
"It's early days yet but some producers are quite optimistic that this is returning to a more traditional wet season," he said.
Wendy Craik, who heads the commission which steers the country's biggest agricultural zone, the Murray-Darling Basin, said it was not known how much water from the floods would benefit farmers further south but some would flow into the system.
Craik said recent rains in Victoria state, much of which falls within the Murray-Darling Basin, which holds 75 percent of the country's irrigated farmland, had also boosted water supplies.
"There was widespread rain last week through the Murray-Darling Basin -- with the exception of South Australia -- and in terms of dry land farmers, it's looking a lot better," she said.
"In terms of irrigators who rely on the Murray [River] ... we still have a long way to go to restore our storages. So we're not out of the woods yet," she said.
OPTIMISTIC: A Philippine Air Force spokeswoman said the military believed the crew were safe and were hopeful that they and the jet would be recovered A Philippine Air Force FA-50 jet and its two-person crew are missing after flying in support of ground forces fighting communist rebels in the southern Mindanao region, a military official said yesterday. Philippine Air Force spokeswoman Colonel Consuelo Castillo said the jet was flying “over land” on the way to its target area when it went missing during a “tactical night operation in support of our ground troops.” While she declined to provide mission specifics, Philippine Army spokesman Colonel Louie Dema-ala confirmed that the missing FA-50 was part of a squadron sent “to provide air support” to troops fighting communist rebels in
PROBE: Last week, Romanian prosecutors launched a criminal investigation against presidential candidate Calin Georgescu accusing him of supporting fascist groups Tens of thousands of protesters gathered in Romania’s capital on Saturday in the latest anti-government demonstration by far-right groups after a top court canceled a presidential election in the EU country last year. Protesters converged in front of the government building in Bucharest, waving Romania’s tricolor flags and chanting slogans such as “down with the government” and “thieves.” Many expressed support for Calin Georgescu, who emerged as the frontrunner in December’s canceled election, and demanded they be resumed from the second round. George Simion, the leader of the far-right Alliance for the Unity of Romanians (AUR), which organized the protest,
ECONOMIC DISTORTION? The US commerce secretary’s remarks echoed Elon Musk’s arguments that spending by the government does not create value for the economy US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick on Sunday said that government spending could be separated from GDP reports, in response to questions about whether the spending cuts pushed by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency could possibly cause an economic downturn. “You know that governments historically have messed with GDP,” Lutnick said on Fox News Channel’s Sunday Morning Futures. “They count government spending as part of GDP. So I’m going to separate those two and make it transparent.” Doing so could potentially complicate or distort a fundamental measure of the US economy’s health. Government spending is traditionally included in the GDP because
Hundreds of people in rainbow colors gathered on Saturday in South Africa’s tourist magnet Cape Town to honor the world’s first openly gay imam, who was killed last month. Muhsin Hendricks, who ran a mosque for marginalized Muslims, was shot dead last month near the southern city of Gqeberha. “I was heartbroken. I think it’s sad especially how far we’ve come, considering how progressive South Africa has been,” attendee Keisha Jensen said. Led by motorcycle riders, the mostly young crowd walked through the streets of the coastal city, some waving placards emblazoned with Hendricks’s image and reading: “#JUSTICEFORMUHSIN.” No arrest
RSS