Rooftop Rescues in Australia as Tens of Thousands Evacuated from Floods

A couple wades through a waterlogged street on the banks of the overflowing Brisbane River. Patrick HAMILTON AFP
A couple wades through a waterlogged street on the banks of the overflowing Brisbane River. Patrick HAMILTON AFP
TT
20

Rooftop Rescues in Australia as Tens of Thousands Evacuated from Floods

A couple wades through a waterlogged street on the banks of the overflowing Brisbane River. Patrick HAMILTON AFP
A couple wades through a waterlogged street on the banks of the overflowing Brisbane River. Patrick HAMILTON AFP

Tens of thousands of Australians were ordered to flee their homes Monday, as torrential rain sent floodwaters to record levels, leaving residents stranded on the rooftops of their homes.

Eight people have died, and the country's weather bureau has warned further severe thunderstorms and intense rainfall will cause "life-threatening flash flooding" across a swathe of the central Pacific coastal region, reported AFP.

In the country town of Lismore, resident Danika Hardiman woke Monday morning to find mud-brown floodwaters had reached the balcony of her second-floor apartment.

She and her partner managed to climb up to the roof, where they were spotted by passing kayakers, who flagged down a makeshift rescue boat.

"We were rescued by two guys in a boat, two locals," Hardiman told AFP, describing the scenes in Lismore as "horrific".

"Imagine you're in a boat sailing past people's roofs," she said.

"The scary thing is this is just the beginning, there's lots of rain to come."

With the town's levees already breached, 43,000 residents were ordered to leave by this morning.

Emergency services were overwhelmed by calls for aid, leading some locals -- including Lismore's mayor Steve Krieg -- to turn to social media for help.

"If anyone has a boat and can get to Engine Street, there's a pregnant lady sitting on her roof. HELP Please," he posted on Facebook Monday.

Emergency rescue services said they had also deployed a helicopter to pluck other stranded residents from rooftops.

More than 400 millimeters (16 inches) of rain has fallen in the past 24 hours around Lismore, with the town's Wilson River still rising, according to the weather bureau.

Water levels in Lismore have not yet reached their expected peak of 14 meters -- but they are already the worst floods the town has experienced.

- A miraculous rescue -Flooding across eastern Australia has now killed eight people, after a man in his 50s died Monday when his car was swept away by floodwaters in the northern state of Queensland.

Millions of people have been told to stay home and nearly 1,000 schools in Queensland remain closed because of the floods.

A 70-year-old man miraculously survived after his houseboat, swept along by the raging Brisbane River, collided with a ferry terminal and quickly sank.

Members of the public were able to rescue the man, with one telling public broadcaster ABC they had linked arms to create a human chain and fish the man from the river unharmed.

"I don't know how he survived it, to be honest," onlooker Matthew Toomey said.

Rain has battered eastern Australia for the better part of a week as an extreme weather system -- the tail end of a wet summer fuelled by La Nina -- has moved south down the country's coast, leaving a trail of destruction in its wake.

Queensland premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said Monday that some regions of her tropical state had experienced a year's worth of rainfall in just days.

Australia has been on the sharp end of climate change, with droughts, deadly bushfires, bleaching events on the Great Barrier Reef and floods becoming more common and more intense as global climate patterns change.



Vatican Cancels Pope’s Weekend Engagements as He Battles ‘Complex’ Infection 

Pedestrians walk past the statue of Pope John Paul II outside the Gemelli hospital where Pope Francis is hospitalized for tests and treatment for an infection in Rome, on February 18, 2025. (AFP)
Pedestrians walk past the statue of Pope John Paul II outside the Gemelli hospital where Pope Francis is hospitalized for tests and treatment for an infection in Rome, on February 18, 2025. (AFP)
TT
20

Vatican Cancels Pope’s Weekend Engagements as He Battles ‘Complex’ Infection 

Pedestrians walk past the statue of Pope John Paul II outside the Gemelli hospital where Pope Francis is hospitalized for tests and treatment for an infection in Rome, on February 18, 2025. (AFP)
Pedestrians walk past the statue of Pope John Paul II outside the Gemelli hospital where Pope Francis is hospitalized for tests and treatment for an infection in Rome, on February 18, 2025. (AFP)

Pope Francis, who began his fifth day in hospital on Tuesday for what doctors have described as a "complex" respiratory infection, will not take part in this weekend's Holy Year events, the Vatican said on Tuesday.

The 88-year-old pontiff has been suffering from a respiratory infection for more than a week and was admitted to Rome's Gemelli hospital on Friday.

A planned public papal audience set for Saturday had been cancelled "due to the health condition of the Holy Father", the Vatican said in a brief statement.

A papal mass scheduled for Sunday will still take place, but will be led instead by a senior Vatican official, it added.

The Vatican said on Monday that doctors had changed the pope's drug therapy for the second time during his hospital stay to tackle a "complex clinical situation". They described it as a "polymicrobial infection of the respiratory tract".

Doctors say polymicrobial diseases can be caused by a mix of viruses, bacteria and fungi.

Francis, who has been pontiff since 2013, has had influenza and other health problems several times over the past two years. As a young adult he developed pleurisy and had part of one lung removed, and in recent times has been prone to lung infections.