Thousands of Aussies have had their Christmas travel plans thrown into chaos after a major airport was forced to close due to flooding levels not seen in 45 years.
Cairns Airport has closed for the second time in four days after more than 600mm of rain drenched far north Queensland in the aftermath of ex-tropical Cyclone Jasper.
The popular holiday hotspot is now ‘an island’ with roads cut off by floodwaters and hundreds of residents and tourists forced to evacuate.
Many hotels in Cairns are being used as evacuation centres for those displaced by floodwaters.
Cairns Airport remains closed on Monday morning with the situation to be assessed later that day.
More heavy rain is forecast to soak the city on Monday.
Cairns Airport was forced to close because of severe flooding, with extraordinary images showing multiple aircraft submerged in a rising torrent on the runway
‘Cairns is like an island,’ Tropical Far North Queensland Tourism chief executive Mark Olsen told the Today show.
‘Yesterday was definitely one for the history books, with record rainfall up in the catchment.
‘Our focus at the moment is keeping the community safe – from Cairns, we can’t travel north to our friends in the Douglas Shire, our Northern Beaches are cut off, we’re cut off on the highway to the south and both tracks to the tablelands are also cut off at the moment.’
More to come
