INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Floods caused by heavy rain in the wake of former Tropical Cyclone Jasper cut off several towns popular with tourists in Australia&s
northeast along the Great Barrier Reef on Monday, with a crocodile being captured from a storm drain, Reuters reported.Jasper dumped months&
worth of rain in the far north of Queensland state over the weekend, forcing some people to flee homes and crowd on rooftops to escape
fast-rising rivers.&The problem is the rain won&t stop and until it eases up, we can&t get aerial support into remote places,& the state&s
premier, Steven Miles, told ABC Television.&We see a lot of natural disasters and this is just about the worst I can remember.&Jasper was
downgraded to a tropical low after leaving a trail of destruction across the state last week.In Ingham, a town of about 5,000 inundated by
floods, conservation officials captured a 2.8 meter-long crocodile in a storm drain by a gas station, media clips showed.Crocodile sightings
in north Queensland are more common in rivers, lagoons and swamps in rural areas, however.Cairns, the gateway town to the Great Barrier Reef
and home to more than 150,000 people, received about 600 mm of rain over 40 hours through early Monday
That is more than triple the December mean of 182 mm.All flights from Cairns airport were cancelled or postponed, with social media images
showing planes partially submerged on the tarmac.Water pumps have been draining water since Sunday but &it&s still not keeping up with the
volume of water that came in,& Richard Barker, the airport&s chief executive, told Sky News.Dan, living just north of Cairns airport, who
gave only one name, told ABC Radio he had to shelter atop his kitchen bench for about four hours before being taken to a house where 30
people had gathered on the roof awaiting rescue boats.&Kids, elderly people, dogs and cats on this poor bloke&s roof who just had brand new
solar panels installed … it was a very harrowing journey navigating the very fast-flowing water and dodging debris,& he said.Weather
officials forecast more rain, as Jasper is likely to persist through Monday, with some regions expected to get 300 mm of rain within six
Major flood warnings have gone out, with rivers set to break records dating to 1977.More than 14,000 properties regionwide have lost
power.Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said defence forces were on standby to launch rescue and relief efforts.Australia is now experiencing
an El Nino weather phenomenon, which can provoke extremes ranging from wildfires to tropical cyclones and prolonged droughts.As the
northeast battles floods, Australia&s southeast, in contrast, is on bushfire alert with temperatures expected to top 40 degrees Celsius on
Tuesday in some Sydney suburbs.The post Cyclone brings floods, crocodile sightings in Australia&s northeast first appeared on Ariana News.
