NZ worker: Scale of disaster hard to comprehend

A New Zealand Civil Defence worker who is part of a team helping residents of flood-stricken Queensland is overwhelmed by the scale of the devastation and hopes waters subside so he is able to help in the worst affected areas.

The 15-strong team was working alongside Australian emergency management staff to help relocate residents from the small town of Condamine, about 350km inland from Brisbane, but was forced to move 30km north to the town of Miles when flood waters began cutting off access to their base.

Emergency management operations training co-ordinator James Thompson said the team was quite isolated because flood waters had blocked most travel routes and would likely stay there until waters subsided.

The team had mostly been helping Condamine residents move their belongings to safe spots on higher ground and preparing their houses for further flooding.

Some residents had been forced to leave their homes twice in 10 days. Having moved home and begun cleaning up since the first surge, homes were again evacuated when water levels rose two days ago, he said.

There had been no loss of life in the Condamine area but many homes had been substantially damaged and belongings lost and residents were "very stressed".

"The thing that really stands out to me at the moment is just the scale. Queensland's a big place and just the scale of the damage that they're having is hard to comprehend - it's just massive.

"Where we are at the moment it's very humid and hot, it's very muddy very sticky - some places have been a bit smelly - but muddy's probably the way to describe it best."

The team had been gratefully received by the locals, who were glad to have the support of their transtasman neighbours.

One rural women's group, whose headquarters they helped clean, had donated money to the Canterbury earthquake appeal.

"It was nice to be able to say `thank you for donating to our earthquake appeal and now we're here to give you ladies a hand tidying up your little office that you've got'."

The New Zealand team, which is expected to stay in Queensland for nearly two more weeks, is assigned tasks by the Queensland state authorities and could be involved in helping the clean-up in the Dalby and Toowoomba area, roughly between Brisbane and Condamine, during coming days.

- NZPA