NEW FLOOD THREAT

Otago Daily Times, Issue 27040, 26 March 1949, Page 7

NEW FLOOD THREAT

NORTH NEW SOUTH WALES MANY FAMILIES MAROONED Rec. 10 p.m. SYDNEY, Mar. 25. Heavy rains have created a new crisis in the flooded northern areas of New South Wales. The police are again operating their “air lift” at full capacity to the many marooned families. The shortage of food in isolated areas is becoming serious. The new rain has added at least another month to the isolation of marooned parties. Flood rains have also fallen in parts of south-west Queensland. Rescuers, using an improvised raft, found a family of a man, his wife and a child huddled on a homestead roof in teeming rain. Floodwaters had threatened the family on a station about 50 miles west of Winton for 36 hours. Rescue parties battled against floods all day after a fading teleEhone call from a person in the omestead told: “ I am up to my armpits in water. We are trying to reach the roof.” The owner of an adjoining station rowed four miles in a raft made from a water trough and petrol drums. Rivers in the far north and Carpentaria districts are rising and threatening floods over a wide area.