There were no Indonesian nationals among 14 people killed or 43 missing in Australia’s biggest floods as of Wednesday although dozens were forced to evacuate, the Indonesian government says.
The Foreign Ministry’s director for protection and legal aid for Indonesian nationals, Tatang Budi Utama Razak, said on Wednesday there were some 50 Indonesian nationals who lived in Rockhampton and Bundaberg cities in Queensland — the flood-affected state — and 75 others, mostly university students, in the state’s capital of Brisbane.
Most of the 50 Indonesian nationals in Rockhampton and Bundaberg were permanent residents, or those who were married to locals, he said.
“According to our consulate general in Sydney, there are no Indonesian nationals who have died or are missing because of the floods,” Tatang told The Jakarta Post.
“But those living in Queensland have been asked by local authorities to leave their houses and evacuate to other Indonesian nationals’ houses that are safer because the level of river water in Brisbane continues to rise and it is estimated that the floods will peak at 4 a.m. local time [on Thursday], or 12 a.m. Jakarta time.”
He said the Indonesian Consulate General in Sydney continued to monitor the situation, and had opened a hotline for Indonesian nationals seeking help, on +61416208869.
The government has granted US$1 million to Australia for flood relief programs, it said on Wednesday in a press statement.
According to a mailing group of the Association of Indonesian Students in Australia, several Indonesians, identified as only Anton and his family, as well as Herwin, have been evacuated from Westerham Street, southwest of Brisbane, to Herston, north of Brisbane.
Massive floods, which began last month, sent thousands fleeing from their homes and sparked panic buying of food on Wednesday, Reuters reported.
The flood surge early on Thursday might inundate 20,000 homes, it reported.
Meanwhile, scientists say climate change has likely intensified the monsoon rains that have triggered record floods in Queensland, with several months of heavy rain and storms still to come, Reuters reported.
Meanwhile, Reuters reported that Australia’s devastating floods could remove over 5 percent of steelmaking coal from world markets this year and lift prices by a third or more, analysts estimated on Wednesday, as damage and disruption to coal infrastructure continue to spread.
Australia’s Bowen Basin coal district, the heart of the coking coal industry in Queensland state, is slowly emerging from floods that have since raced south, but recovery has been slow, with one Queensland coal port closed and two restricted.
More than half the world’s metallurgical coal exports come from Australia, most of it destined for steelmakers in Asia. Roughly 90 percent of that coal comes from Queensland, mostly the Bowen Basin.
Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) in a report said the floods could remove nearly 14 million tons of coking coal from world markets, and that figure could rise if rains returned to the Bowen Basin.
