St. Patrick, where are you...

...when we need you?

Flood-weary residents of this Australian coastal city and other areas beset by record rains have a new worry: poisonous snakes lurking in the muddy waters of their submerged streets and homes.

Officials in the town of Theodore, which evacuated all 300 residents last week, were still trying to determine on Wednesday when it would be safe to allow residents to return. The county mayor, John Hooper, expressed particular concern about an influx of venomous snakes, flushed from their habitats and searching for dry ground.

“I’m hearing stories that it is bad,” Mr. Hooper said of the snakes. “And I’ve been told they’re bloody angry, so people will have to be very careful.”

“There’s a lot of snakes — and I mean a lot,” a Rockhampton resident, Shane Muirhead, told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. “Like, every hundred yards you will see a snake, and they’re just everywhere.”