Roma, Mitchell clean up as St George waits

9 Feb 2012, 7:19 pm   -   Source: AAP

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The flood-damaged towns of Roma and Mitchell in southern Queensland continued their painstaking recovery work as waters finally began to subside from St George.

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The flood-damaged towns of Roma and Mitchell in southern Queensland continued their painstaking recovery work as waters finally began to subside from St George.

The Maranoa Regional Council said 444 properties in Roma were damaged in the record floods, an upward revision of more than 140.

A further 288 properties in the smaller town of Mitchell were affected. Several hundred volunteers, defence force personnel and resource company staff set about cleaning up mud and debris from the town.

Brigadier Greg Bilton, who is commander in charge of the military response, said his team had complimented the early hard work of the volunteers. "In the past 24 hours, we've been able to provide relief for some of the heavy lifting that's been done," he told AAP.

"And through our efforts we've been able to ensure that the school at Mitchell - which was used as an evacuation centre and had some issues with inundation - will reopen tomorrow."

With the floodwaters providing ideal conditions for mosquitoes, the Maranoa Regional Council announced it would commence a large scale "fogging" program to eradicate the bugs.

Mayor Robert Loughnan said the two-week plan to apply pyrethrum insecticide on mosquito hot spots in Mitchell, Roma and Surat to stop the spread of illnesses like Ross River fever.

Mr Loughnan said the fogging did not pose a health risk to residents. South of the clean-up effort at St George, the Balonne River was finally easing from the record 13.96 metre mark it reached on Wednesday, the Bureau of Meteorology said.

The bureau said waters should recede below 13.5m on Thursday evening, but predicted the river to remain at major flood levels for several days.

Balonne Shire Mayor Donna Stewart said it was a relief to see the water levels dropping.

"It's all good (here) now we know the river has peaked and the water is going to start receding," she told AAP.

Ms Stewart said about 30 homes outside of the town's earthen levee were affected by the floods.

"There's quite a bit of emotion around and it's unfortunate a few (houses) have to be sacrificed to save the majority." It remains to be seen when around 2500 people evacuated from the town will be permitted to return.

Dirranbandi, which is downstream of St George, will likely remain cut off for weeks.

The Local Government Association of Queensland (LGAQ) said the flooding disaster highlighted the need for the state government to co-ordinate a centralised mapping system.

LGAQ president Paul Bell said the mapping would create more efficient allocation of resources in disaster management.

The issue of flood mapping is being examined by the Queensland floods inquiry.

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