Hundreds rescued as record rains flood northeastern Australia
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Queensland State Emergency Service volunteers respond to flooding in the state's northeast from ex-Tropical Cyclone Jasper on Sunday. Photo: Queensland Fire and Emergency Services/Facebook
Life-threatening flooding in Australia's Far North Queensland saw rescue teams respond to more than 370 callouts and receive over 1,000 requests for assistance in 24 hours, the state's Fire and Emergency Services said Monday.
The big picture: Thousands were without power and officials in Cairns raised concerns the city that's the gateway to the Great Barrier Reef could lose drinking water as heavy rains from ex-Tropical Cyclone Jasper lashed the region.
- The Australian Defense Force was deploying up to 150 emergency support personnel and equipment to Cairns, Australia's Defense Minister, Richard Marles, said in a post to X Monday.
- "ADF helicopters will provide assistance to isolated residents in the region as soon as possible to support Queensland emergency authorities," he added, as officials prepared to evacuate the entire Aboriginal town of Wujal Wujal just over 100 miles north of Cairns.
State of play: Jasper was a Category 2 tropical cyclone as it passed on Wednesday near Wujal Wujal, where officials said Monday flooding had trapped nine adults and one child on the roof of a hospital in the town of almost 280 residents.
- In Cairns, the regional council said in an online statement Monday that some suburbs in the city of over 161,000 "may already be without water due to damaged infrastructure" from the flooding, as it warned water supply had reached a "critical level" after some supply intakes were "blocked by debris."
- Cairns Airport was closed Sunday and Monday due to an "unprecedented flooding event related to major and rapid flooding at the nearby Barron River."
Meanwhile, video footage has captured crocodiles swimming in the floodwaters.
Of note: Bureau of Meteorology spokesperson Daniel Hayes said as the rains began subsiding in many places on Monday that new rainfall records had been set across Far North Queensland, per the Cairns Post.
By the numbers: "A trough associated with ex-Tropical Cyclone Jasper produced more than 500 mm [19.6 inches] of rainfall at sites in the North Tropical Coast over the past 24 hours to 9am, in the Daintree, Mossman and Barron catchments," per an Australian Bureau of Meteorology post to X.
- Preliminary data showed "some sites have recorded up to around 800 mm [31.5 inches]," the BOM said.
- The Daintree River at Daintree village, northwest of the coastal resort town of Port Douglas, reached 14.85m (48.5 feet), which the BOM noted was "well above the old record of 12.6m [41.5 feet] from 2019."
Context: Climate change is causing extreme precipitation events to be more intense and frequent.
- This is because a warmer atmosphere can hold more water vapor, which provides added moisture and energy to storm systems, per Axios' Andrew Freedman.
Between the lines: This extreme weather event has occurred during an El Niรฑo, which Environmental Geography adjunct professor Steve Turton notes in The Conversation is "when tropical cyclones are much less likely to occur in the Australian region" โ especially in early December.
- "The atmosphere and oceans are warming due to increasing emissions of greenhouse gases, largely caused by burning fossil fuels," added Turton, who's based at Central Queensland University.
- "This has led to a greater risk of extreme rainfall and flooding, such as the events we're seeing now in Far North Queensland."
Go deeper... Australian official: Climate change making historic flooding "less natural"
Editor's note: This article has been updated with new details throughout.
