Crocodile fears for Australians trapped in flood waters

Australians trapped in rising floods and already dealing with raw sewage, swarms of mosquitoes and power blackouts must now contend with a new threat — crocodiles and snakes.

Meanwhile, residents of the northeastern city of Rockhampton, population 77,000, could be completely cut off from the outside world when the Fitzroy River reaches 31 feet on Wednesday.

Rockhampton, a hub for the farming and coal-mining region, has become the focus for what officials call "biblical" floods affecting 200,000 people in an area the size of France and Germany.

Weeks of heavy rains and a tropical cyclone have swollen rivers to record levels, washing away bridges and forcing military evacuations of entire towns.

Ten people have so far died.

Emergency officials have also voiced fears the high waters, expected to remain for up to two weeks, could bring poisonous snakes and crocodiles, The Telegraph reported.

"They're in their mating season and they've been flushed out of their environment … snakes are very, very cranky right now," a state emergency services officer said.

"The problem with crocodiles now is it's very, very hard to pick [them] with the amount of debris."

One SES volunteer said he had seen "two cops hightailing it out of the water with a croc going past."

The Queensland government is expected to hold an emergency cabinet meeting on Wednesday to address the potential cost of the disaster. Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard has pledged assistance to flood victims.

“To be frank there aren’t many industries that haven’t been affected in Queensland,” a spokeswoman for the state premier, Anna Bligh, told the New York Times.

Of particular concern is damage to fruit crops and cotton, and Queensland's production of coking coal, which is used in the production of steel. The sprawling tropical state produces just under half the world’s supply of the commodity.

Flooded mines and transport disruptions mean the coal industry could take months to recover, pushing up global prices, the spokeswoman said.