Thousands stranded by Australian floods: officials

0 Comments | AFP, January, 2008

SYDNEY (AFP) — Thousands of Australians are stranded by floodwaters and some could remain isolated for up to a week after torrential rains hit the country's east coast, emergency officials said Monday.

Although flooding was easing, thousands of people in towns in the northeast of New South Wales and southern Queensland have been cut off by four days of heavy downpours, officials said.

"The number of people directly affected, there are some 3,000 people who remain isolated by flood waters," New South Wales State Emergency Service spokesman Phil Campbell told AFP.

Campbell said Coraki, a town of 1,500 people some 150 kilometres south of Brisbane, would likely remain cut off for another 24 to 48 hours as would several hundred farm houses.

"But for some...