Residents in northeastern Australia were left stranded on hospital roofs on Monday as flash floods swept through the region, destroying highways and bringing crocodiles into towns.
Over 200 individuals were rescued by rescue teams during the course of the night, according to police, and military helicopters have been sent to assist flooded communities that have been shut off by the floodwaters.
Following Tropical Cyclone Jasper’s landfall late last week, Queensland has been battered by destructive winds and torrential rain.
Queensland Treasurer Cameron Dick said that the impending catastrophe will have a “billion-dollar impact” on the state on Monday, when further rain is predicted.
Nine people, including a seven-year-old patient, huddled for safety on the roof of a hospital in the largely Aboriginal settlement of Wujal Wujal.
“We know that those people are in a desperate way now,” said Kiley Hanslow, the chief executive of the Wujal Wujal Aboriginal Shire Council.
“The patient is a 7-year-old boy. They need to get him off the roof and get him warm again,” she told national broadcaster ABC.
Hanslow said the town of 300 was a “sea of dirty water and mud”.
“There’s also crocodiles swimming around in that water now,” she added.
Crocodiles have also been spotted lurking in floodwaters in the rural town of Ingham, local politician Nick Dametto said.
The tourist hub of Cairns has been almost completely surrounded by the floods, which have washed over the major highways running into the city of 150,000 people.
Floodwaters lapped at the wings of planes parked at the Cairns international airport on Sunday.
“This level of rainfall is next level,” Queensland Premier Steven Miles told reporters on Monday.
“We deployed literally every boat we could get our hands on in Cairns to evacuate those who couldn’t safely evacuate themselves.”
