Last Updated: Feb 13, 2008 - 3:17:29 PM


Mum dies saving flood baby
By dailytelegraph.com
Feb 13, 2008 - 3:12:45 PM

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The 36-year-old woman's husband and two children have survived the terrifying ordeal, after both parents battled to keep their kids safe from rising flood waters.

The family were driving on the Capricorn Highway at Gogango last night when the car aquaplaned on the flooded roadway.

The car came to rest about 600 metres from the Gogango Creek crossing, before it was pushed off the road and into one-metre-deep water about 8.30pm.

Police have described the parents desperate efforts to save their children from the flood waters.

The father managed to reach into the backseat and unbuckle the children, aged two and six-months, before the couple fled the car with one child each in their arms.

The father, also 36, made it out of floodwaters but the woman was dragged by the water and was forced to cling to a tree with the baby in her arms "for some time" until help arrived from a nearby property, a police spokeswoman said.

Once rescued, she collapsed with exhaustion.

"She was conscious but totally exhausted," the spokeswoman added.

Police officers gave her CPR before ambulance officers arrived and pronounced her dead.
A post-mortem examination will be undertaken to determine the cause of death.

In another incident, a man stranded between two rising creeks near Bouldercombe, south of Rockhampton, had to be rescued after he saved a young girl trapped in the rising creek.

Firefighters were able to reach him on a bank he had managed to climb onto after being swept down a creek and into a fence about 6pm (AEST).

The rescues came during a busy night for the authorities who sandbagged homes and businesses, fixed leaking roofs and staffed closed roads around Bundaberg, Gladstone, Calliope, Miriam Vale, Agnes Waters and the town of 1770.

Bureau of Meteorology senior forecaster Gavin Holcombe said the heaviest falls were recorded around the Gladstone area where falls were up to 131mm.

He said the monsoon trough was this morning situated over the Capricorn Coast/Wide Bay area and was moving north towards Mackay and Rockhampton.





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