Consequences of the flood in Australia (based on article)

http://www.asiaone.com/News/Latest%2BNews/Asia/Story/A1Story20090217-122617.html

Flooding rivers and heavy rains cut off towns, stopped mining operations and damaged crops in three Australian states on Tuesday - one week after devastating bushfires swept the country's southeast killing 200
people.

Heavy rain and flooding forced mining giant Rio Tinto Ltd/Plc to suspend iron ore mining and rail haulage on Tuesday over a large part of the Pilbara region in Western Australia state.

All operations at the company's Pannawonica, Brockman and Nammuldi mines have been halted, and pit mining at Tom Price and Paraburdoo have also been brought to a standstill, it said.

Flooding along the 80 km road separating Rio's two main ports at Dampier and Cape Lambert made it difficult to fully assess the impact the bad weather was having on operations that unload up to a half-million tonnes of ore
daily.

A low depression storm off the east coast caused heavy rains on Tuesday in New South Wales state, flooding rivers and isolating towns.

"Some of the towns are the wettest they have been in 20 to 30 years," said a weather official.
The outback town of Bourke, in drought last week, has recorded 232 mm of rain in recent days, more than two-thirds of its annual rain. While the coastal town of Bellingen was cut off on Tuesday after receiving 323 mm in 24 hours.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/7174377.stm

Thunderstorms are partly responsible for the floods .
Since the rivers of Australia could not take in so much rain , the banks burst as they could not take it anymore . The roads were like rivers and bridges were destroyed , being washed away .
The flood waters had forced people to leave their destroyed homes , leaving them homeless .
In some areas, food and other essential supplies for trapped residents have been brought in by helicopter .
"There are some 3,000 people who remain isolated by flood waters ," New South Wales State Emergency Service spokesman Phil Campbell said .
About 700 people who were attending a music festival on an island near the town of Tenterfield in the north-east of the state were stranded after a bridge washed out .