(CNN) -- Relief teams rushed supplies into a flood-ravaged Australian city Monday as rising waters threatened to close a highway and cut off the area, officials said.
Seasonal flooding, which intensified about a week ago after monsoon rains caused rivers to spill their banks and reach record levels, had left thousands of people without homes and claimed nine lives across Queensland state by Monday, the state's Department of Community Safety said.
That tally includes three flood-related deaths from the latest deluge, and six other storm season flooding deaths beginning on November 30.
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The city of Rockhampton has been particularly hard hit, with water levels still rising Monday and threatening to wash over a highway north of the city of 75,000 people.
Crews will truck supplies into Rockhampton "until the road becomes impassable," Queensland state disaster official Ian Stewart said in a statement.
The city's regional airport closed Saturday afternoon and was expected to remain closed for the coming weeks, Emergency Management Queensland said.
Forecasters said it could be days before conditions improve.
Water levels were expected to crest at 9.4 meters in Rockhampton on Wednesday, CNN meteorologist Ivan Cabrera said.
Meanwhile, residents were stacking sandbags and boarding up shop windows Monday as they prepared for the deluge to continue.
Prime Minister Julia Gillard urged residents to stay away from floodwaters. On Friday she toured the devastation and said the flooding in Queensland will cost "hundreds and hundreds of millions of dollars."
Journalists Sarah Wiley and Michael Best contributed to this report.
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Source: http://edition.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/asiapcf/01/03/australia.floods/index.html?eref=edition
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