SYDNEY-
The military has begun evacuating a remote Indigenous community cut off from life by record-breaking floods in northern Australia.
A previous attempt to reach Wujal Wujal, north of Brisbane, was canceled because of the storms.
Torrential rain has caused life-threatening flash flooding in parts of north Queensland following former tropical cyclone Jasper.
Residents sought shelter on roofs and trees. So far there have been no reports of deaths or serious injuries.
In a swelling river in northern Queensland, Gavin Dear, a musician, sees a man clinging to a tree. In a video posted on social media, he can be seen moving his boat closer to the stranded man.
“Can you wave? Yeah, we'll just drive in, buddy, and grab the tree. Ok, buddy, we've got you. Can you come down?” he asked.
Dear told the Australian Broadcasting Corp. that the man who was rescued was lucky to be alive.
“There was probably 500-600 meters of water. “Big, fast-moving brown water,” Dear said. “We got to his tree, yeah, this guy was shaking uncontrollably and he was also tense from holding on there. “A shipping container had washed by and almost crushed him up there.”
The entire town of Wujal Wujal, a remote Aboriginal community 2,000 km (1,243 miles) north of Brisbane, is being evacuated because of the flooding.
It's been cut off for days.
The supply of food and water to the population of around 300 is running low. Military helicopters have joined the effort to fly them to safety in Cooktown, 80 km (50 miles) away.
Record-breaking rain is gradually easing in northeastern Australia. It is estimated that 1.5 m of rain has fallen in the last five days. Hundreds of people were rescued. Bridges, roads, houses and crops were damaged.
Flooding is beginning to subside, but Murray Watt, Australia's Minister for Emergency Services and Agriculture, told local media that recovery will take time.
“Obviously there is still a lot of work to do with the evacuation from Wujal and there is certainly some response efforts that still need to be made,” Watt said. “But today we can also start the recovery task, which we know will be very lengthy.”
Warren Entsch, a federal lawmaker who represents flood-affected parts of northern Queensland, has criticized the Bureau of Meteorology, Australia's national weather agency.
Entsch told local media the region had not been properly warned about record rainfall. However, a government spokesman said weather forecasting was not an “exact science”.
Elsewhere, heatwave warnings are currently in effect for parts of Western Australia, the Northern Territory, Queensland and New South Wales, where severe bushfires are also burning.
The increasing frequency of natural disasters in Australia has raised concerns among scientists, environmentalists and politicians about the effects of climate change.