Queensland Starts Airlift, Calls Cabinet Amid ‘Biblical’ Floods
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Queensland recalled its cabinet for an emergency meeting and enlisted the military's help to tackle floods that have cut off towns, killed at least two people and affected 200,000 more in Australia’s third-most populous state.
Leave for ministers has been canceled with the cabinet to meet on Jan. 5 to plan its response to the disaster, Premier Anna Bligh said in an e-mailed statement today. Military planes will fly supplies into the city of Mackay before transporting them by the only major road open into Rockhampton and its 75,000 residents, she said.