RSS Feed
February 3rd, 2012 
FAKE NEWS for the Zionist agenda Hundreds of residents are sheltering in evacuation centres as a new, record-breaking flood disaster grips inland Queensland.
Premier Anna Bligh warned on Friday that communities were in dangerous new territory, as the disaster unfolded at a pace that left authorities scrambling to get people to safety.
There are fears the crisis has claimed at least one life – a woman swept away in her car in Roma.
A boy in the car was saved, but rescuers could not keep their grip on the woman and she was carried off in her vehicle. She remains missing.
Ms Bligh declared a state of disaster as floodwaters swamped almost the entire town of Mitchell and inundated Roma to the east, where all residents have been ordered to higher ground.
Charleville, west of both towns, is next in line, with authorities preparing for a possible breach early on Saturday morning of the levee that protects it.
“If that happens, it will affect the whole town,” Ms Bligh warned.
In Mitchell, where 75 per cent of the town is underwater, 300 of the community’s 750 residents had to be choppered out of an evacuation centre after it became isolated by floodwaters.
They’re now holed up in another evacuation centre, which is serving as a temporary home for about 500 people.
“I do understand this is very frightening for people and they would be very distressed,” Ms Bligh told reporters.
In Roma, all 13,000 residents have been told to seek refuge on higher ground as the Bungil Creek crept beyond the flood level of 8.1 metres in March 2010, when 200 homes flooded.
It was sitting at 8.4m at 6.30pm (AEST) on Friday and was expected to get to 8.5m before midnight.
Maranoa Mayor Robert Loughnan said about 100 people were in evacuation centres but that number was expected to swell dramatically.
Mr Loughnan said the situation in Roma escalated very rapidly, with water levels rising one metre in just an hour early on Friday afternoon.
Evacuees holed up at Mitchell’s council depot needed more help, he said.
“We have 500 people up there now, we need to get more services and facilities into those people,” he told the ABC.
“There’s a dramatic shortage of showers and toilets, those sorts of basic things.”
Mr Loughnan said he was worried about power to the depot being cut amid the worst flooding on record.
“I can only guess how many houses are affected, it’ll be in the hundreds,” he said.
At Charleville, the Warrego River tributary Bradleys Gully is creeping higher, and authorities fear it could breach the levee.
Ms Bligh said nothing was being left to chance, and authorities were preparing for the worst, with the peak expected in the early hours of Saturday.
“The current forecast is water will rise to within I think 12 millimetres of the top of the levee.
“If it’s breached it will affect the whole town.”
Murweh Mayor Mark O’Brien downplayed the threat to Charleville but said authorities were watching the gully closely.
“There’s some higher water still to come down but we won’t know until we actually see it go through the gauge,” Mr O’Brien told AAP.
“At the moment its about 0.9 of a metre up the levee bank and the levee is a 7.7 metre levee so it has got some space to go yet. I’m cautiously optimistic that it won’t go over the levee.”
St George is also on alert for flooding from early next week.
Forecasters predict the Balonne River there will possibly exceed 13.4m on Tuesday or Wednesday, which could mean about 200 homes flooded.
“This means the people of St George will have seen major flooding above 13 metres in 2010, 2011 and 2012,” Ms Bligh said.
Surrounding communities, including Bollon and Dirranbandi, would also be affected, she said.
Earlier, as she declared a state disaster, she appointed Deputy Police Commissioner Ian Stewart as State Disaster Coordinator.
Mr Stewart said the amount of water washing through inland communities was staggering.
“There is so much water on the ground there and we know in some areas the waters are still rising,” he told ABC radio about 5pm.
“We’re in record territory out in this country. They haven’t seen these levels of floods for many years, or ever before.”
Views: 0
Posted in 
Tags: 
