NYT Times - NE Australian Floods May Be At Or Approaching Peak This Week

MELBOURNE, Australia — Floodwaters appeared to be at or near their peak across much of tropical, northeastern Australia on Wednesday, with inundations affecting 40 towns and cities, as an army general was named to lead efforts to cope with the disaster.

In the coastal city of Rockhampton, where hundreds of homes have been submerged and more than 100 people are living in evacuation centers, floodwaters reached a long anticipated peak as the Fitzroy River surged to around 30 feet, said Paul Birch, a senior hydrologist at the Bureau of Meteorology. “I think it’s up there for another week,” he said. In other areas of the state, waters continued to rise although predicted rains proved too light to worsen the crisis, he said.

Maj. Gen. Mick Slater was appointed at an emergency meeting of the cabinet of the flood-hit state of Queensland to lead a task force to cope with the recovery.

“This is a disaster on an unprecedented scale, and it is going to take an unprecedented, sustained effort to rebuild regional Queensland,” Anna Bligh, the state premier, told reporters at a news conference. “Maj. Gen. Mick Slater is an outstanding Queenslander, and I am pleased that he has agreed to lead the Flood Recovery Taskforce.”

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http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/06/world/asia/06australia.html?_r=1