Jan

2011

4:10pm, EST

Jonathan Wood / Getty Images

Local residents relax as their home is surrounded by flood waters on Jan. 5, in Rockhampton, Australia. All eyes are on the central Queensland city of Rockhampton, currently in floodwatch lock down as the community braces for the swollen Fitzroy River to reach a predicted peak of 9.4 metres. The Queensland flood crisis has resulted in ten deaths and affected more than 200,000 people across an area as large as France and Germany combined. The flood bill is predicted to be upwards of AUD 5 billion.

As Australian flooding continues, some residents take the water in stride

By Carissa Ray

Not to belittle the devastation that the current flooding has wrought Australia, with hundreds of thousands affected, thousands of homes devastated or destroyed and whole towns cut off from access - but the silver lining to the flooding here as compared to the flooding that devastated Pakistan last year, is that in a first world country, some residents are able to take the floodwaters in stride, as this Australian household seems to be doing. Read more about the flooding HERE.