Record-breaking floods inundate outback Qld and rivers could peak again

ABC NEWS (Australia)

A flood emergency is unfolding across outback Queensland with more communities forced to evacuate. The record breaking flood has inundated homes, and devastated the agriculture industry.

Transcript

00:00Heartbreak from the air. Endless floodwaters engulfing outback communities.

00:07I'm not sure there's ever been anything like this before. Not that I know of anyway.

00:11Nobody's seen water this high, this deep, this fast.

00:14Another overnight deluge adding insult to injury.

00:18Dozens of people had to be evacuated from Jundah this afternoon.

00:21The devastation is difficult to comprehend.

00:24Our house is on the highest point in Adavale, but it's already in the house when I left at three o'clock yesterday.

00:32We've now got well over 100 homes that have had water inundated and there's the likelihood of that number rising.

00:37Heidi Cowley feared for her children as a raging current encroached her Adavale home yesterday.

00:43Husbands had to push them up onto our roof and they landed the chopper on the roof and took the kids to higher ground first.

00:52Now safe in Quilby and relying on the generosity of locals.

00:56I had one of the other mums here go, do you need clothes for the kids?

01:00The agricultural sector underpinning this region is in crisis.

01:04We could see stock losses into the hundreds of thousands.

01:07While the rain may be easing, the impacts of this flooding disaster are far from over,

01:12as huge amounts of water continue to move downstream and affect other communities.

01:17The recovery from an event of this scale could take years.

01:21The rain will definitely soften the ground, but it won't soften the people in the west, they are tough.

01:25Authorities warning residents to be alert as the system continues to move towards coastal regions.

01:31Underlying conditions are wet, so even moderate rainfall could create some localised river responses.

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