Floods wreak havoc on Queensland infrastructure, threaten Aussie economy
airport may remain shut to commercial flights until at least 11 January, the airport said on its Web site.
Still, Bligh said that in some areas, St George aside, the flooding may be past its worst. “If Mother Nature leaves us alone for a while, we are now seeing the situation stabilize,” she told the ABC. “We’re starting to see the waters either stabilize or recede.”
The Fitzroy River at Rockhampton peaked at 9.2 meters on 5 January and remains steady at 9.15 meters today, the Bureau of Meteorology said. While rain and possible thunderstorms were forecast tfor the weekend and the beginning of the week, water levels will fall “very slowly” over the weekend, theBureau said. The river will stay above 8.5 meters until late next week, it said.
Some people have chosen to remain in their houses despite the flooding, Rockhampton Regional Council Mayor Brad Carter said in a press briefing broadcast on Sky News.
“The flood levels are going to remain very high for at least seven days, which will make living in that environment, living in flood water in and around and underneath your house, a very uncomfortable environment,” he said.
In Western Australia, the Gascoyne River is flooding. It peaked overnight at 6.3 meters and is falling, the weather bureau said on its Web site.
The rain has destroyed cotton crops, halted coal deliveries, shut mines, and prompted producers including BHP Billiton Ltd. and Rio Tinto Group to declare force majeure, a legal clause allowing them to miss contracted deliveries.
Australia’s dollar dropped to a two-week low versus the U.S. currency, to 99.33 cents, on speculation the Reserve Bank of Australia will slow the pace of interest-rate increases after the floods tempered the economic outlook.
The cost of hiring larger ships to haul coal fell the most in almost six months as the flooding shut mines and cut cargoes, according to the Baltic Exchange in London. In New York trading, cotton gained for the third straight day on concern that output will be cut in Australia, the fourth-largest exporter. Orange juice also advanced.
The floods have cut production of coal by about 4.5 million metric tons since the start of December, Colin Hamilton, an analyst at Macquarie Group Ltd., said in an e-mail. Coking coal prices may increase by about a third, analysts from Macquarie, Morgan Stanley and Daiwa Capital Markets said.
