Heavy rain leaves Australia's towns isolated
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Several days of torrential rain have left Australia's four cyclone-battered north Queensland towns isolated, said authorities on Thursday.
Emergency Management Queensland area director Daryl Camp said about a dozen of homes had been flooded in the cyclone-hit town of Cardwell as well as the nearby towns of Kennedy and Ellerbeck.
Cardwell, Mission Beach, Tully Heads and Hull Heads in north Queensland are isolated, with 60cm of water on roads in some places.
Camp said the State Emergency Service (SES) received 89 calls for help in the region to fix tarps, sandbag and evacuate.
"It's just one more thing on top of everything else that's happened to the poor buggers," Camp told Australian Associated Press (AAP).
At Tully, there was a lot of water around the town but so far no homes or businesses had gone under.
"There has been a lot of calls for help (from Tully)," Camp said.
"These people have been living under tarps since cyclone Yasi and they're now leaking from the wind and rain."
Tully Police said the northern route out of town was still open but the route to the south was closed.
Two SES teams would be sent to Cardwell on Thursday. Another went in on Wednesday to help local crews, Camp said.
Bureau of Meteorology senior forecaster Bryan Rolstone says the situation is expected to get worse.
"Because the catchment is saturated, flooding is very easy and when we have heavy rain, flooding is more likely," he said.
A severe weather warning for flash flooding has been issued for the area.
