Australia's west coast hit by 50-year flood

Mon, 20 Dec 2010

Sydney - Property owners on Australia's west coast were totting up the damage Monday after the worst floods in 50 years surged through the northern Gascoyne region, wrecking homes, killing livestock and inundating plantations.

The Gascoyne river, which is dry most of the year, reached a height of 7.6 meters after the region received more than a year's worth of rain over the weekend.

Eddie Smith, who grows mangoes at Carnarvon, 900 kilometers north of Perth, said half his crop was underwater. "We needed rain, but not this bad," he said.

Jim Gaunt, who runs cattle 200 kilometers east of Carnarvon, said he expected to find drowned cattle when the floods subsided and he is able to cross river beds that had turned into torrents.

"There are cows stuck in the forks of trees," he said. "We are expecting things to be not too good when we get out there."

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/news/358948,coast-hit-50-year-flood.html.