Floods cut off cyclone-hit Australia tourist towns along Great Barrier Reef

Heavy rain from a coastal trough linked to ex-Tropical Cyclone Jasper on Monday cut off several tourist towns in Australia's northeast along the Great Barrier Reef, forcing evacuations as some residents fled to rooftops to escape fast-rising rivers. Jasper lashed the far north regions of Queensland state last week leaving a trail of destruction before getting downgraded to a tropical low, bringing months worth of rain within a few hours over the weekend, official data showed. "We see a lot of natural disasters and this is just about the worst I can remember," Queensland state Premier Steven Miles told ABC television. "The problem is rain won't stop and until it eases up, we can't get aerial support into remote places." Cairns, the gateway town to the Great Barrier Reef and home to more than 150,000 people, received around 600 mm of rain over 40 hours through early Monday morning. That is more than triple the December mean of 182 mm. All flights from Cairns airport were cancelled or postponed on Monday with footage on social media showing planes partially submerged on the tarmac. Water pumps have been draining water since Sunday but "it's still not keeping up with the volume of water that came in," Cairns Airport CEO Richard Barker told Sky News. A crocodile was spotted in a swollen drain in the town of Ingham, about 250 km south of Cairns, and authorities warned residents not to swim in flood waters.<br/>