20110106 Floods cause ‘catastrophic’ damage

Floods cause ‘catastrophic’ damage

COSTLY DELUGE:Heavy rains in Australia could last for another three months and analysts estimate the floods could shave 0.4 points off the country’s GDP

REUTERS, ROCKHAMPTON, AUSTRALIA
　

A vehicle drives down the flooded runway at Rockhampton Airport in Australia yesterday after the swollen Fitzroy River broke its banks.
PHOTO: AFP

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 yesterday.

The worst flooding in decades has affected an area the size of Germany and France, leaving towns virtual islands in a muddy inland sea, devastating crops, cutting major rail and road links to coal ports, slashing exports and forcing up world coal prices.

“Seventy-five percent of our mines are currently not [in] operation because of this flood,” Queensland Premier Anna Bligh told local television. “So, that’s a massive impact on the international markets and the international manufacturer of steel.”

The floods, which have cut off 22 towns and affected 200,000 people, have resulted from the La Nina weather phenomenon, which produces monsoonal rains over the western Pacific and Southeast Asia.

La Nina is expected to last another three months after it produced Australia’s third-wettest year on record last year, the nation’s weather bureau said yesterday.

“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,” Bligh said. “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 scrambled to build sandbag levees yesterday in the hope of holding back the rising waters, which analysts estimate could shave around 0.4 percentage point of Australia’s economic activity.

In Rockhampton, a cattle town of 75,000, a rise of just 20cm in floodwaters would inundate another 400 homes and lap at the front door of a further 4,000 properties.

“Let’s hope we dodge the bullet. Every centimeter counts,” said Ian Stewart, Queensland’s state disaster co-ordinator.

Three people have drowned in the floods. Authorities are warning people to stay out of floodwaters not just because of the risk of drowning but because snakes and crocodiles are being washed into homes and shops.

Some coal mines in Queensland, the world’s biggest exporter of coal used in steel-making, were resuming production although the outlook remained uncertain.

Macarthur Coal said yesterday it had resumed transporting coal by rail to Dalrymple Bay Coal Terminal this week, but force majeure notices remained in place and future coal trains would depend on coal availability.

“Once the pits are free of water, we’ll have more coal exposed that can be processed and transported,” Nicole Hollows, Macarthur’s managing director, said. “It is not possible to predict when we will return to a steady state of mining as that largely depends on any future rain.”

Wesfarmers is resuming output at its Curragh mine in the Bowen Basin, but maintained its force majeure.

A spokesman for Dalrymple port warned that unless mine companies resume production in the nation’s biggest coal region soon, coal export shipments could again be cut.

Some rail lines carrying coal from inland mines expected to stay partially underwater for another week.

“In terms of river levels, they might recede by next week, but these big mining establishments are obviously going to feel the affects for months to come,” said Jess Carey, a flood forecaster for the Australian Bureau of Meteorology.

Coal mines with annual production capacity of more than 90 million tonnes have issued force majeure notices, which release them from delivery obligations.