(AFP) – Jan 7, 2008

SYDNEY (AFP) — Thousands of Australians are stranded by floodwaters and some could remain isolated for up to a week after torrential rains hit the country's east coast, emergency officials said Monday.

Although flooding was easing, thousands of people in towns in the northeast of New South Wales and southern Queensland have been cut off by four days of heavy downpours, officials said.

"The number of people directly affected, there are some 3,000 people who remain isolated by flood waters," New South Wales State Emergency Service spokesman Phil Campbell told AFP.

Campbell said Coraki, a town of 1,500 people some 150 kilometres south of Brisbane, would likely remain cut off for another 24 to 48 hours as would several hundred farm houses.

"But for some people in very isolated areas, some of the backwater flooding may mean isolation for up to a week," he said.

Campbell said hundreds of people attending a music festival in the state's northeast were also trapped at the site, but emergency officials had provided them with food, water and other essential items.

"The bridge there has been damaged and the road washed out," he said.

"The people have been isolated for three days and the will remain isolated for the rest of today and possibly into tomorrow as well until road access can be restored."

In the neighbouring state of Queensland, volunteers were being air-lifted into scores of properties to deliver supplies to those cut off by floodwaters.

"We want to check on them and make sure everyone's ok, and make sure they don't have issues with medications running out, and other things," a State Emergency Service spokesman told Australian Associated Press.

Copyright © 2009 AFP. All rights reserved. More »