Floodwaters ease around threatened Australian towns

SYDNEY: Floodwaters began to ease around two towns in northeastern Australia on Tuesday as disaster relief officials said last-minute preparations to hold off the waters appeared to have worked.   

Waters peaked in the morning around Charleville, in the south of Queensland state, where rescue workers from as far away as New Zealand had battled for days to build a temporary levee.   

In the central town of Emerald, waters were still rising but the rate of rise had slowed and the town's Nogoa river was also expected to peak by the end of the day.

"It's rising so slowly that we're not really expecting a big inundation anyway," emergency services spokeswoman Gemma Marks said.

Swathes of water covered large areas around both towns.   

Around 2,000 people have fled their homes around Emerald, with a few billeted temporarily at a town hall or an agricultural college in the town in the latest round of weeks of flooding in Queensland.   

The floods in the northeastern state have left 70 percent of Queensland receiving disaster relief, with the northern region of Mackay the latest addition.