Communities across the Australian state of Queensland are bracing for more rain after record-breaking floods cut off roads and inundated vast areas of the region’s outback.
Several areas in western Queensland have recorded their worst flooding in 50 years after days of heavy rainfall engorged rivers and forced residents to evacuate.
Rainfall of more than 600 millimeters, nearly double the yearly average, was seen in some areas in recent days, according to CNN affiliate Nine News, as officials warned the damage could cause destruction of farmland and loss of livestock.
“This flooding situation is expected to continue not just for the next few days but likely for the coming weeks, as huge flood peaks make their way slowly downstream,” Australia’s Bureau of Meteorology said in an update on Thursday.
As of Friday, flood warnings remained in place for parts of central and south Queensland, as more rainfall is expected to lash the state through the weekend as the weather system moves southeast.
“This isn’t regular wet season rain,” Queensland Premier David Crisafulli told reporters Friday. “We are dealing with an event that is at unprecedented levels in many of these communities.”
The townships of Jundah, Stonehenge and Windorah saw water levels exceed those of historic 1974 floods, according to public broadcaster ABC.
Crisafulli pledged support for the state as it faces a “crisis” when it comes to the impacts on agriculture, with stock losses potentially in the “hundreds of thousands.”
Queensland has been battered by several severe storms this year that have wrought havoc.
In early March, tropical storm Alfred battered Australia’s heavily populated east coast, lashing the region with damaging winds and heavy rain for several days as hundreds of thousands of homes in southeast Queensland and northern New South Wales lost power.
Alfred was the most southerly cyclone to threaten the region since Tropical Cyclone Zoe in 1974.
Earlier in the year, floodwaters triggered by record rainfall along a 735-kilometer (456-mile) stretch of Queensland killed at least one person and put thousands of residents in low-lying coastal suburbs and towns under evacuation orders. Nearly a summer’s worth of rain fell on large parts of the state’s northern area in just a few days.
Intense rain events are getting heavier and more frequent as the world warms due to fossil fuel pollution and the consequences of the climate crisis worsens extreme weather.