Brisbane:
Some Australian communities remained isolated by floodwaters and others braced for a new river peak Sunday as the nation's third-largest city struggled to clean up the putrid sludge left behind by the receding Brisbane River.
More than 12,000 rubber-gloved volunteers hauled sodden debris from soaked homes, shoveled muck and swept and mopped muddy floors in some of the 30,000 homes and businesses that were flooded in Brisbane.
Officials have said the complete cleanup of the Queensland state capital would take months, and reconstruction up to two years.
The floods have caused 27 deaths in Australia's northeast since late November, and 14 other people are missing, most of them from a flash flood that hit towns west of Brisbane on Monday.
In Grantham, described as the epicenter of the flash flood, 70 percent of the town remained cordoned off Sunday while searchers looked for the bodies of the missing.
"People I hope will understand the pressure that the police are working under in these sorts of circumstances and be patient," Queensland state Premier Anna Bligh said. "They are working as hard as they can to be in a position to allow people back into Grantham as quickly as possible."
The wall of water that swept through the town left behind dozens of smashed cars wedged in trees or bogged in fields, houses slipped off their foundations and masses of muddied belongings piled up as debris in the streets.
The engorged rivers that flooded Queensland towns have now swelled south into other states. In New South Wales, nearly 7,000 people have been isolated by floodwaters that overflowed highways and emergency services helicopters air-dropped food and other supplies to residents.
In northern Victoria, a dozen small communities were sandbagging amid fears of high-peaking rivers, and 3,000 people have evacuated.
An economist has estimated the Queensland floods' cost could be as much as $13 billion, or 1 percent of gross domestic product in Australia's 1.3 trillion Australian dollar ($1.29 trillion) economy.
Mining companies say they won't be able to meet contracts for coal, Australia's biggest export, while Queensland farmers' crop losses could push up world food prices.
Even more frightening for farmers is the Bureau of Meteorology's prediction that rain could last through March due to the cool conditions in the central equatorial Pacific Ocean associated with the current La Nina -- a weather system known for producing heavy rains.
More than 12,000 rubber-gloved volunteers hauled sodden debris from soaked homes, shoveled muck and swept and mopped muddy floors in some of the 30,000 homes and businesses that were flooded in Brisbane.
Officials have said the complete cleanup of the Queensland state capital would take months, and reconstruction up to two years.
The floods have caused 27 deaths in Australia's northeast since late November, and 14 other people are missing, most of them from a flash flood that hit towns west of Brisbane on Monday.
In Grantham, described as the epicenter of the flash flood, 70 percent of the town remained cordoned off Sunday while searchers looked for the bodies of the missing.
"People I hope will understand the pressure that the police are working under in these sorts of circumstances and be patient," Queensland state Premier Anna Bligh said. "They are working as hard as they can to be in a position to allow people back into Grantham as quickly as possible."
The wall of water that swept through the town left behind dozens of smashed cars wedged in trees or bogged in fields, houses slipped off their foundations and masses of muddied belongings piled up as debris in the streets.
The engorged rivers that flooded Queensland towns have now swelled south into other states. In New South Wales, nearly 7,000 people have been isolated by floodwaters that overflowed highways and emergency services helicopters air-dropped food and other supplies to residents.
In northern Victoria, a dozen small communities were sandbagging amid fears of high-peaking rivers, and 3,000 people have evacuated.
An economist has estimated the Queensland floods' cost could be as much as $13 billion, or 1 percent of gross domestic product in Australia's 1.3 trillion Australian dollar ($1.29 trillion) economy.
Mining companies say they won't be able to meet contracts for coal, Australia's biggest export, while Queensland farmers' crop losses could push up world food prices.
Even more frightening for farmers is the Bureau of Meteorology's prediction that rain could last through March due to the cool conditions in the central equatorial Pacific Ocean associated with the current La Nina -- a weather system known for producing heavy rains.
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