Hundreds evacuated as flood disaster unfolds in northeastern Australia
Rescue teams evacuated more than 300 people overnight, police said, and military helicopters were dispatched to help inundated areas cut off by the floods, AFP reports.
Damage was reported along an expanse of coastline that stretched about 400 kilometres (250 miles) across northern Queensland state.
Resort manager Cassie Hounslow said entire houses were submerged in Mossman, a small inland town at the foot of the heritage-listed Daintree rainforest.
"Houses have gone under. I mean some houses have been fully engulfed," she told AFP.
Tumbling boulders triggered by a landslide had "smashed one of the roads", Hounslow said, and a major highway out of Mossman was "pretty much buggered", she said.
With another deluge expected Monday, Queensland Treasurer Cameron Dick said the unfolding disaster would have a "billion-dollar impact" on the state.
