Residents in some places have been advised against traveling because big crocodiles have been spotted in the floodwaters in Queensland, Australia, which has experienced record-breaking flooding.
Burketown, a small town in the state’s north located around 1,300 miles northwest of Brisbane, the state capital, has seen exceptionally severe floods brought on by the torrential rain.
Roads and homes are submerged in aerial photographs.
According to a Reuters report, around 100 residents needed to be flown to higher ground.
Floodwaters in Burketown reached record levels, according to Australia’s Bureau of Meteorology on Tuesday, with the river rising above the previous highest level of 6.78 meters recorded in 2011.
On Monday, Queensland Police warned residents to stay out of the floodwaters as a helicopter had spotted “two very large crocs” in the waters.
The warning was made in a video posted to Twitter, which showed police rescuing a baby kangaroo from the floodwaters.
In a statement on Tuesday, Queensland Police said: “It is still unsafe for displaced people to return to their homes and police remind residents to limit movement in the flood water due to unseen hazards and recent crocodile sightings.”
The flooding is expected to ease slowly over the next few days, according to the Bureau of Meteorology, but it is likely to remain above the “major flood level” of 6 meters (nearly 20 feet) until Wednesday and possibly longer.
This flooding crisis is just the latest for Australia, which has endured several major floods over the last few years, due to a multi-year La Nina weather event, typically associated with increased rainfall. These include the devastating, record-breaking floods in Western Australia in January, which affected an area almost three times the size of the United Kingdom.