A cooking crisis is
emerging in Australia’s flood-stricken areas of Queensland, the Australian
Associated Press (AAP) reported on Thursday.

The town of Emerald in Queensland, Australia is seen flooded Thursday, Dec. 30, 2010. (Xinhua/AFP Photo)

Authorities are planning
mass food drops to isolated communities across central and southern regions in
the state, as the crisis rages.

State Recovery coordinator
Bruce Grady said that with so many roads cut and so many people forced into
evacuation centers food supply was of “growing concern”.

He said authorities were
working with retailers to open up supply chains and get food and other
essentials to needy communities.

On Thursday, the situation
in the town of Emerald in central Queensland was of most concern, amid
predictions 80 percent of the town would be inundated and 8,000 residents could
be affected by floodwaters.

About 2,500 residents were
planning to evacuate as floodwaters had cut road and rail access to the town,
Emergency Management Queensland said.

Further south, Condamine
has become the second entire town to be evacuated and three helicopters were
used to get the town’s entire population of 100 out after the Condamine River
reached a record peak of 14.25 meters, the AAP reported.

Theodore, to Condamine’s
north, is already empty with its 300 residents having been evacuated.

At Bundaberg, on the
coast, a peak of 7.9 meters has hit, with floodwaters splitting the city in two,
inundating 120 properties, forcing almost 400 evacuations.

Further north, at
Rockhampton, there are fears more than 4,000 properties could be affected by
what’s threatening to be the worst flood in the city’s history.

VietNamNet/Xinhuanet