At least 200,000 people were affected by the flood and up to 500 homes in Australian Townsville are now underwater due to dangerous "unprecedented" flooding that affects Queensland, according to the Australian media.
Moreover, the disaster made some snakes and crocodiles start roaming the streets.
Extreme Rainfall in Australia Forces Evacuations, Could Flood 20,000 Homes https://t.co/KmnBhM5xZp pic.twitter.com/jXOrTIu36h
— Ir (@Irmerem22) 4 февраля 2019 г.
This comes after, earlier, the monsoon forced the authorities to initiate the full opening of the floodgates at the Ross River's dam releasing approximately 2,000 cubic meters of water per second.
Las inundaciones en Australia han provocado la presencia de cocodrilos en las calles
— Joaquín López-Dóriga (@lopezdoriga) 4 февраля 2019 г.
(FOTOS) https://t.co/qFFBh3O8SS pic.twitter.com/tqrIQC2ir9
Emergency services are now working at the scene to evacuate people and eliminate the disaster. Moreover, the Australian military has arrived to provide assistance.
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The Australian media cited the officials as saying that "dangerous and high velocity flows" had been spotted along the Ross River. This made the authorities issue a major flood warning after record heavy rains.
Despite these efforts, by Monday morning, the dam has held over 500,000 gigaliters of water which represents its 229 percent capacity.
