A woman has perished in Australia, and thousands have been compelled to evacuate their residences after relentless rainfall triggered flooding in northern Queensland.
Officials are cautioning that floodwaters could surge up to second-storey height in a scenario they described as perilous and life-threatening.
More than 700mm (26in) of rain has poured on sections of North Queensland in the past 24 hours, and there is apprehension that “record downpours” will persist into Monday, according to Queensland State Premier David Crisafulli.
Weather experts say these could be the most severe floods in the region in over six decades.
Crisafulli stated that conditions were unlike anything northern Queensland had encountered “for an extended period.”
“It’s not just the severity, but also the duration of it,” he informed Australian broadcaster ABC.
Thousands of individuals residing in the city of Townsville were instructed to vacate their dwellings by midday on Sunday while authorities deployed 100,000 sandbags to obstruct floodwater.
Segments of the highway between Townsville and the vacation hub of Cairns have been severed, hindering attempts to dispatch rescue teams and sandbags to the vicinity.
