Economy reels as Queensland floods hit mines

Queensland is losing up to A$100 million ($131 million) a day in coal exports because of the unprecedented floods.

Three three river systems spilling out across vast areas of the state had left 40 towns isolated or partly underwater, Premier Anna Bligh told an emergency Cabinet meeting in Brisbane yesterday. The meeting planned the response to a crisis that has affected more than 200,000 people and is expected to cost billions of dollars in recovery.

The Fitzroy, Condamine and Burnett river systems are in flood.

"We're now operating 17 evacuation centres in 10 towns," Bligh told her ministers.

She said it would be days before floodwaters started to subside.

Forty of the state's coal mines were unable to operate and it would take months to bring some back into production, ministers said.

Resources Minister Stephen Robertson and Environment Minister Kate Jones met to assess the environmental damage from flooded mines.

"It's going to take some months for some mines to be back to full operation," Robertson said.

"We earn round about A$100 million a day exporting coal to the rest of the world and exports have been significantly restricted by the impact on infrastructure."

Education Minister Geoff Wilson said told reporters that 10 state primary schools, three state high schools and three colleges had been "substantially affected" by the floods.

The Fitzroy River was expected to peak in Rockhampton last night.

The weather bureau said the Fitzroy was at 9.2m and steady but it could not say exactly when the river level would peak.

It is due to remain above the major flood level of 8.5m for at least a week.

At the 9.4m mark, 400 homes will be inundated and thousands more properties will be affected by floodwaters.

About 100 people were camped out at the city's evacuation centre while a further 500 stayed with family and friends.

Soggy conditions are making flood preparations difficult, with a severe thunderstorm alert current and up to 100mm of rain expected to hit the region over coming days.

In other parts of the state, some flooded communities were beginning to dry out. In the town of Theodore, which evacuated all 300 residents last week, specialists arrived in helicopters to check the safety of power, water and sewage plants, county mayor John Hooper said.

Officials were still trying to determine when it would be safe to allow residents to return. One problem: an influx of venomous snakes, flushed from their habitats and searching for dry ground amid the waters.

"I'm hearing stories that it is bad," Hooper said. "And I've been told they're [the snakes] bloody angry, so people will have to be very careful."

Deputy commissioner and state disaster co-ordinator Ian Stewart said snake sightings were on the rise.

"I've been around the state, travelling nine days out of the last 10 visiting all of these centres as the emergency unfolds," he told ABC TV.

"I've heard a report from one [isolated] homestead they had an area of ground the size of a football field around their property on high ground, the only people there were the two owners and about one thousand snakes. It must have been an amazing scene."

Stewart said authorities were monitoring the snake threat. "We have extra vials of antivenin at the hospitals in surrounding flooded areas."

He said some homeowners were in for a nasty shock when they returned to their flooded properties.

"It's afterwards that snakes are driven into homes. They're getting into ceilings. They're forced out of their holes during these wet events. We have snake handlers being alerted so they can ... get rid of any unwanted visitors."

Last year was Australia's third-wettest year on record as a 14-year "long dry" was broken by the rapid transition from El Nino to La Nina conditions. The second half of the year (July to December) was the wettest on record for Australia.

But the big wet was not felt by every region in the country. Southwest Western Australia had its driest year on record, while Tasmania reported near to average rainfall.

Data collected by the Bureau of Meteorology show that the Australian mean rainfall total for 2010 was 690mm, well above the long-term average of 465mm. It was Australia's wettest year since 2000 and the third-wettest year since records started in 1900.

The only month to record a national monthly total below the long-term average during 2010 was June.

The only other time 11 months of the year experienced above-average rainfall was in 1973.

While 2010 started with El Nino conditions in the Pacific - creating drought-like conditions in many parts of eastern Australia - there was a rapid transition to La Nina during autumn.

Unusually heavy falls were experienced in Queensland, New South Wales, the Northern Territory and South Australia. The most widespread and damaging floods of the year occurred across Queensland in the final week of 2010.

Based on preliminary numbers, 2010 was the wettest year on record for Queensland. The NT, NSW and South Australia experienced their third-wettest year on record, and Victoria its fifth-wettest year.

- AAP, AP