Brisbane:
Devastated residents of Australia's third-largest city dug their ruined possessions out of piles of putrid sludge as deadly flood waters that swamped entire neighborhoods receded on Friday, revealing the grim aftermath of one of the nation's worst natural disasters.
The sickening stench of spoiled food and muck from the swollen Brisbane River permeated the city of 2 million, where more than 30,000 homes and businesses were flooded.
In towns upstream of Brisbane, soldiers picked their way through debris looking for more victims. Weeks of flooding across Australia's northeast have caused 25 deaths, and 55 people were still missing.
"There is a lot of heartache and grief as people start to see for the first time what has happened to their homes and their streets," Queensland state Premier Anna Bligh said. "In some cases, we have street after street after street where every home has been inundated to the roof level."
One man drowned on Thursday when he was sucked into a storm drain as he tried to check on his father's home in an inundated Brisbane neighborhood. Officials expected to find more bodies farther upstream as they finally got access to hamlets struck by flash flooding on Monday.
Most of the people still unaccounted for are from around Toowoomba, a city west of Brisbane in the Lockyer Valley where a sudden downpour caused a flash flood likened to an inland tsunami. Police Commissioner Bob Atkinson said Friday that officials may never be able to find everyone swept away by the raging torrent.
"We would certainly hope they would find them all," Atkinson said. "Regrettably, we could not exclude completely the possibility that some may never be found."
Water was still high in some areas Friday, but had pulled back dramatically in others to reveal mountains of muddy wreckage. Officials asked the Australian Defence Force for a minesweeper to search the mouth of the river for sunken debris.
Prime Minister Julia Gillard doubled the number of defense personnel involved in the recovery effort to 1,200, the largest deployment for a natural disaster since Cyclone Tracy destroyed the northern city of Darwin in 1974.
"There's a lot of dirt, a lot of filth, a lot of mess that needs to be cleaned up," Gillard said. "We've been through some very difficult days and there's still a lot to go through in the weeks and months that lie ahead."
About 57,000 homes were still without power across Queensland, and the military was delivering food, clothes and other supplies to areas still cut off by the waters.
Health officials warned people to throw out anything that had touched the contaminated waters.
"What the city has to prepare itself for ... is the unbearable stench," Bligh said. "The smell of it is just unspeakable."
Brisbane resident Kirsten Norquay was trying to figure out how to break the news to her hospitalized sister that everything she owns is now destroyed.
Norquay's sister, who is mentally ill, lives on the ground floor of their house and had no idea muddy flood waters had ruined all of her belongings. She was due to be released from the hospital Friday, and Norquay feared she would have a breakdown when confronted by the devastating sight of the wreckage.
"We have like a massive pile of all her life's belongings on the front grass," she said. "The only thing I saved was her photos."
Police officers were patrolling the flooded streets of Brisbane and other waterlogged communities around the clock. Ten people have been charged with looting in the past week, police said.
The flooding across Queensland has submerged dozens of towns -- some three times -- after several weeks of driving rain fell in the tropical northeast. Highways and rail lines have been washed away, and the disaster is shaping up to be Australia's costliest. Damage estimates were already at $5 billion before the flood waters swamped Brisbane.
Heavy rains in the southern state of Victoria were causing flooding there. Around 2,000 people from 400 homes there have been evacuated, State Emergency Service spokeswoman Jilly Charlwood said.
In the state capital of Melbourne, Australia's second largest city, the Yarra River washed over its banks and onto an adjacent pedestrian walkway, she said.
The sickening stench of spoiled food and muck from the swollen Brisbane River permeated the city of 2 million, where more than 30,000 homes and businesses were flooded.
In towns upstream of Brisbane, soldiers picked their way through debris looking for more victims. Weeks of flooding across Australia's northeast have caused 25 deaths, and 55 people were still missing.
"There is a lot of heartache and grief as people start to see for the first time what has happened to their homes and their streets," Queensland state Premier Anna Bligh said. "In some cases, we have street after street after street where every home has been inundated to the roof level."
One man drowned on Thursday when he was sucked into a storm drain as he tried to check on his father's home in an inundated Brisbane neighborhood. Officials expected to find more bodies farther upstream as they finally got access to hamlets struck by flash flooding on Monday.
Most of the people still unaccounted for are from around Toowoomba, a city west of Brisbane in the Lockyer Valley where a sudden downpour caused a flash flood likened to an inland tsunami. Police Commissioner Bob Atkinson said Friday that officials may never be able to find everyone swept away by the raging torrent.
"We would certainly hope they would find them all," Atkinson said. "Regrettably, we could not exclude completely the possibility that some may never be found."
Water was still high in some areas Friday, but had pulled back dramatically in others to reveal mountains of muddy wreckage. Officials asked the Australian Defence Force for a minesweeper to search the mouth of the river for sunken debris.
Prime Minister Julia Gillard doubled the number of defense personnel involved in the recovery effort to 1,200, the largest deployment for a natural disaster since Cyclone Tracy destroyed the northern city of Darwin in 1974.
"There's a lot of dirt, a lot of filth, a lot of mess that needs to be cleaned up," Gillard said. "We've been through some very difficult days and there's still a lot to go through in the weeks and months that lie ahead."
About 57,000 homes were still without power across Queensland, and the military was delivering food, clothes and other supplies to areas still cut off by the waters.
Health officials warned people to throw out anything that had touched the contaminated waters.
"What the city has to prepare itself for ... is the unbearable stench," Bligh said. "The smell of it is just unspeakable."
Brisbane resident Kirsten Norquay was trying to figure out how to break the news to her hospitalized sister that everything she owns is now destroyed.
Norquay's sister, who is mentally ill, lives on the ground floor of their house and had no idea muddy flood waters had ruined all of her belongings. She was due to be released from the hospital Friday, and Norquay feared she would have a breakdown when confronted by the devastating sight of the wreckage.
"We have like a massive pile of all her life's belongings on the front grass," she said. "The only thing I saved was her photos."
Police officers were patrolling the flooded streets of Brisbane and other waterlogged communities around the clock. Ten people have been charged with looting in the past week, police said.
The flooding across Queensland has submerged dozens of towns -- some three times -- after several weeks of driving rain fell in the tropical northeast. Highways and rail lines have been washed away, and the disaster is shaping up to be Australia's costliest. Damage estimates were already at $5 billion before the flood waters swamped Brisbane.
Heavy rains in the southern state of Victoria were causing flooding there. Around 2,000 people from 400 homes there have been evacuated, State Emergency Service spokeswoman Jilly Charlwood said.
In the state capital of Melbourne, Australia's second largest city, the Yarra River washed over its banks and onto an adjacent pedestrian walkway, she said.
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