There are nine people trapped on the roof of a hospital and five people needing rescue from their roof in Queensland as dangerous flooding tears through Far-North Queensland.
Freshly-appointed Queensland Premier Steven Miles said he is “most concerned” about the nine people who have spent the night on the roof of Wujal Wujal clinic and five people stuck on the roof of their homes in Degarra.
“Everything is being done to rescue them, unfortunately the rain is so heavy and the cloud so low, we can’t get aerial support in and the roads are blocked” he told Today on Monday.
He said his office have been in contact with them over the phone.
The state has pulled “every single boat they could find” to conduct the almost 300 rescues made overnight in and around Cairns.
“So everyone from the yacht club to the navy, to SES, to even the surf lifesavers,” Mr Miles said.
Mr Miles said he has spoken to people who have lived in Cairns their entire life, and they say they have “never seen anything like this”.
“While we were expecting very heavy rainfall in the wake of the cyclone, this is next level” he said.
“We need people to get themselves to evacuation centres if they’re concerned, if they can’t do so safely they need to contact us and we will get out crews to them as soon as we can.”
The Young Animal Protection Society shelter in Smithfield is currently underwater but community members and volunteers have managed to get all the animals to safety before floodwaters arrived.
“By the time we were bringing dogs out, we were all running through almost knee-high waters and the kennels were underwater,” shelter supervisor Kelly Brown told Today.
They shared a post on social media asking community members to help house the dogs during the emergency situation and were overwhelmed by the effort to help.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese confirmed on Monday morning, defence personnel are on standby to assist with the recovery effort.
“Of course many of those communities will be very difficult to get to, which is why the ADF assets will be important in reaching those people in those communities,” he told listeners of ABC radios’ AM program.
“People have been devastated and of course it’s a very dangerous situation for many who are in very unprecedented floodwaters,” Mr Albanese said.
“The important thing at this point in time is to ensure that people are kept safe and that is a real concern.
“A number of people are isolated and have needed rescuing from their terrible circumstances. So just our thoughts go to all people in those communities at this at this very difficult time.”