Floodwaters send crocodiles onto Australian city streets

SYDNEY — As if torrents washing through homes and sweeping away furniture wasn’t scary enough. Authorities in storm-battered northeastern Australia are warning residents to beware of crocodiles roaming the floodwaters covering large parts of Queensland. One reptile, lost in the deluge, was reportedly hit by a car. Snakes looking for shelter, sometimes in people’s homes, have also become a concern. ‘We’ve had sightings of three large crocodiles. I’m not sure if it’s the same crocodile moving around,’ Joyce Zahner, the acting mayor of Carpentaria, told The Australian newspaper on Wednesday. The paper said several dogs in the area had gone missing and children have been warned not to play in floodwaters. More than half of Queensland state was declared a disaster area Tuesday because of the rains that started in late December and are expected to continue.

In the coastal city of Townsville, floods were blamed for washing a freshwater crocodile into the street — where it got run over. The 5.25-foot-long crocodile survived and was being treated for an injured eye and several broken teeth, the Townsville Bulletin newspaper reported Wednesday. The Queensland Environmental Protection Agency has warned residents to watch out for wildlife on roads and in their yards. ‘Crocodiles might move about looking for a quiet place to wait for floodwaters to recede and snakes may swim into peoples’ properties,’ Environmental Protection Agency project officer Brian Wright said after the late January floods. Townsville Wildlife Carers volunteer Lana Allcroft said the service had been overwhelmed with injured and displaced animals since the floods began. ‘A lady rang up this morning and said she had a snake in her bathroom. I said, ‘Well, I’ve got a crocodile in mine,’ ‘ Allcroft told the newspaper. ‘We’ve had wallabies, curlews, snakes and flying foxes, and that’s just this morning.’ A curlew is a bird.