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Women gives birth in flooded town
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Posted on Nov 24 2000
SYDNEY, Australia (AP) — A volunteer helping tackle severe flooding in eastern Australia had an emergency of her own when she gave birth prematurely — cut off from the nearest town by swollen rivers.
Belinda Campbell said Thursday she was helped through the delivery Wednesday by her husband Craig, who got instructions over the telephone. She was 11 weeks early.
“He was good … he helped me get it out and rang people to … let them know the baby was there,” she told Australian Broadcasting Corp. radio.
The Campbells and Vaughan Lee, their first child, were later evacuated by helicopter from their isolated home near the northern New South Wales town of Wee Waa and taken to a nearby hospital. She had been helping neighbors in flood-struck Wee Waa when her own home got isolated.
The wettest November on record has left up to one third of New South Wales state under water, state authorities say. More than 600 people have been evacuated from their homes and hundreds more are isolated by flood water and surviving on emergency supplies flown in by helicopter.
The flooding has caused hundreds of millions of dollars worth of damage to wheat and cotton farmers in the region.
Emergency services efforts Thursday were concentrated on Narrabri, 340 miles north of Sydney, where three swollen rivers converge. Johan Hausoul, spokesman for the emergency services agency in New South Wales, said the low-lying town was well prepared for the expected inundation, with businesses and houses sandbagged, and vulnerable people already moved out of their homes.
New South Wales Premier Bob Carr has declared large regions of the flood-hit state natural disaster areas, entitling residents and businesses to relief including low interest loans.
