Greetings! Please Share & Subcribe.
Australians whose homes have been inundated with floodwater in the state of Queensland are now facing the threat of deadly snakes as the reptiles move into dry buildings to avoid the rising waters.
Extra snakebite antivenom, including brown snake antivenom, has been airlifted into the city of Rockhampton, one of the worst-hit parts of the state.
Health officials have warned residents to be on the look out for dangerous snakes, spiders and even crocodiles that have been forced out of their natural habitats and onto higher ground by the natural disaster.
Barry Moessinger, who lives in a low-lying part of Rockhampton, said he had spotted about 15 snakes each day over the past week.
"There's heaps of them," he told the Australian newspaper.
"We had a plague of mice, a lot of frogs, so we knew the snakes would come."
Brad Carter, the mayor of Rockhampton, which lies 370m north of Brisbane, said crocodiles inhabited the flooded Fitzroy River and has warned residents to stay out of the murky brown floodwaters for their own safety.
"Snakes have been swimming at people's feet as they make their way through the water," he told the BBC.
"I know one guy killed four snakes this morning, one of which was a Taipan - the more it bites the more it injects venom that could easily kill."
Large parts of Rockhampton are now underwater, including the airport runways.
The town of 77,000 people is almost cut off from the outside world by the water, with several major routes in now flooded. The army is airlifting in supplies amid fears that rising waters, which are expected to peak at 30 feet on Wednesday, could isolate the town for 10 days.
An estimated 4,000 homes have been affected and the floodwater has reached the centre of the town, disrupting power supplies.
Across Queensland up to 200,000 people have been hit by the flooding, which has left 22 rural towns under water or substantially inundated.
Andrew Fraser, the state's treasurer, said the disaster of "biblical proportions" would cost the state more than $1bn.
Anna Bligh, the Queensland premier, has called an emergency cabinet meeting for Wednesday to address the unfolding crisis.
The area affected by the worst flooding in living memory is now the size of France and Germany combined.
Some good news came when the bureau of meteorology in Queensland cancelled a severe thunderstorm warning, saying the immediate threat had passed, but officials still expect waters to rise.
Alistair Dawson, Queensland state assistant police commissioner, has warned the emergency could drag on for another month and cautioned that major difficulties still lay ahead. It could be months before the fast-flowing waters subside and there are fears that the deluge could move south to New South Wales.
The floods, which have damaged crops and Australia's key mining industry, claimed their first victim on Sunday when the body of a missing woman was recovered.
The 41-year-old woman was swept from her car as she tried to cross a swamped causeway in the Gulf of Carpentaria region. Police managed to save three children and another adult from the car but the woman disappeared before they could reach her.
Police confirmed a second official fatality on Monday, after the body of a 38-year-old man whose boat was swamped in central Queensland was found.
TELEGRAPH
0 Comments