Massive flood strands hundreds, prompts crocodile warnings in Australia

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Remnants of a tropical cyclone unexpectedly dropped 30 to 40 inches of rain across a swath of Australia’s northeastern coast in recent days, inundating an area known as the gateway to the Great Barrier Reef and at least briefly threatening drinking water supplies.

There were widespread rescues with fishing boats and jet skis as the quickly rising waters trapped residents who had been expecting a run-of-the-mill brush with a tropical storm. As the rain slowed and recovery efforts began Monday, the Cairns Post reported that at least one person had died, but Queensland police said the death was not directly linked to the storm. Wujal Wujal, an isolated Aboriginal community, was stranded with only a few days’ worth of food, according to the Brisbane Times. Continuing heavy rain thwarted a helicopter rescue attempt, authorities said.

“We have seen incredible acts of bravery,” Steven Miles, premier of the state of Queensland, said in a media briefing Monday afternoon.

As many as 300 people filled an evacuation shelter Monday morning, though that number decreased by the evening, said Shane Chelepy, deputy commissioner of Queensland’s police service.

In some spots, rainfall surpassed 60 inches — as much as normally falls in that part of Australia during an entire year — and approached 80 inches, potentially the most the country has ever seen during a single storm.

Floodwaters carried so much debris that it blocked the intake at a major water treatment plant near Cairns, the largest city in a region of Queensland known as the Far North. Authorities in the city of 170,000 people said that supplies of treated water were dwindling to critical levels but that they were able to resume water treatment late Monday.

Cairns Mayor Terry James said in a statement that authorities had not turned off the water supply, as some were speculating. “We have simply run out of processed water,” he said.

Residents were advised to limit water use and to collect rainwater to flush toilets.

The rain fell over about five days as the remnants of Tropical Cyclone Jasper moved slowly over the Cape York Peninsula. The storm made landfall as a Category 2 cyclone Wednesday and quickly weakened, but then stalled over the region, bringing incessant heavy rain.

In Cairns and Port Douglas, popular tourist destinations for their beaches and access to the Great Barrier Reef, rainfall surpassed 45 inches and reached nearly 80 inches in at least one spot. Normal annual rainfall in Cairns is about 78 inches, with the strongest risks for downpours from December through March because of monsoon rains and tropical cyclones.

The rainfall may have been enough to set all-time records in Australia for its intensity and duration. Tropical Cyclone Peter dropped as much as 76 inches of rain in the Far North in 1978-1979.

The rain tapered off Monday, and Cairns Airport was set to reopen Tuesday. As floodwaters began to recede, authorities warned residents to continue to avoid flooded roadways and to watch out for downed power lines and other hazards — including snakes and crocodiles.

Computer models project additional heavy rainfall in the region through Wednesday, which could aggravate the flooding. Drier weather is forecast for later in the week.

Hot and dry weather has been persistent this summer in southern Australia, but until this storm hit, conditions had been close to normal across Queensland.