Australian floods submerge towns

Daniel Munoz -

Military aircraft ferried supplies to an Australian town slowly sinking beneath swollen rivers on Monday, as record flooding in the country's northeast severed roads and ports, curtailing coal exports and devastating farmland.

Floods submerged the Capricorn Highway, the major traffic artery through Queensland state, and poured into homes in the sinking town of Rockhampton, sending furniture and refrigerators cascading down torrents of floodwater.

Rockhampton, a community of 77,000 just off the Pacific coast and 600 km (370 miles) north of the state capital Brisbane, was accessible mainly by emergency services boats.

Rescue workers escorted stranded patients out of hospitals, police ordered reluctant residents to leave their homes, and electricity company teams made their way up to abandoned homes to ensure power was switched off.

Snakes slithered their way across the waterlogged highway a few km outside the devastated town.

Resident Reg Wilson said police gave him little choice but to leave his home.

"A policeman came along in a car with a gun on his hip who said 'You be out of here by five o'clock or else'," he said. "When a man with a gun talks to you like that, you get out."

Flooding covering a vast area has caused more than A$1 billion (656 million pounds) in damage, forced some 200,000 residents from their homes and hit commodity exports that are a mainstay of the Australian economy.

Coal is Australia's number one export earner, accounting for $55 billion (35.3 billion pounds) of export revenue each year.

"This is a major natural disaster and recovery will take a significant amount of time," Prime Minister Julia Gillard said while announcing financial aid for flood victims.

"The extent of flooding being experienced by Queensland is unprecedented and requires a national and united response."

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Photo Daniel Munoz - Reuters

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