Flooded Aus town on croc alert
2008-02-15 14:41
Brisbane - Residents were warned to be on the lookout for marauding crocodiles on Friday after a monsoon storm left a northern Australian city flooded and forced the evacuation of up to 1 000 people.
Mackay, a mining and sugarcane farming town in Queensland, was pelted with twice its monthly average of rain in 24 hours, meteorologists said, leaving streets and houses awash under muddy water.
State officials declared the city a disaster zone and warned people not to venture out into the floodwaters, and began evacuating residents to higher ground.
"No one should try to drive through, walk or swim in floodwaters as it is too dangerous," said Queensland Emergency Services Minister Neil Roberts.
Among the dangers was the possibility that crocodiles that normally live in rivers and estuaries in the area would be swimming through the floodwaters, said state Environmental Protection Agency official Joe Adair.
Anyone who spotted one of the giant reptiles should just stay away from it, he said.
"If they become close to a crocodile (they should not) chase it or provoke it because they will lose," Adair said.
Prime Minister Kevin Rudd promised federal assistance to those affected by the floods.
Weather bureau senior meteorologist Vikash Prasad said 625mm of rain fell in the 24 hours to Monday morning - twice the monthly average for Mackay - and more was coming down.
Emergency services manager Kevin Pagano said four evacuation centres had been set up in schools in the area, and were preparing to cater for up to 1 000 people.
Once almost extinct, saltwater crocodiles that regularly grow to about five meters in length have become more common in waterways in Australia's tropical north since a hunting ban was imposed in the 1970s. Attacks on humans are rare.
- AP