Australia floods cause “catastrophic” damage

Thursday, 6 January 2011 00:01 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

ROCKHAMPTON, Australia (Reuters) - Australia’s record floods are causing catastrophic damage to infrastructure in the state of Queensland and have forced 75 percent of its coal mines, which fuel Asia’s steel mills, to grind to a halt, Queensland’s premier said on Wednesday.

The worst flooding in decades has affected an area the size of Germany and France, left towns virtual islands in a muddy inland sea, cut major rail and road links to coal ports, slashed exports and forced up world coal prices.

“Seventy-five per cent of our mines are currently not operating because of this flood, so that’s a massive impact on the international markets and the international manufacture of steel,” Premier Anna Bligh told local television. Queensland state is the world’s biggest exporter of coal used in steel-making.

“Queensland is a very big state. It relies on the lifelines of its transport system, and those transport systems in some cases are facing catastrophic damage,” said Bligh.

“Without doubt this disaster is without precedent in its size and its scale here in Queensland. What I’m seeing in every community I visit is heartbreak, devastation.”

Residents in flooded towns worked desperately to build sandbag levees on Wednesday in the hope of holding back the rising waters. In the cattle town of Rockhampton, a rise of just 20 cm (8 in) in floodwaters would inundate another 400 homes and lap at the front door of a further 4,000 properties.