Australia floods: Fears worsen for Brisbane
Baku, January 12 (AZERTAC). Up to 20,000 homes are now at risk in Brisbane, the Queensland state premier has said, as deadly floodwaters surge towards Australia`s third-largest city.
Central Brisbane is a ghost town, with electricity cut and thousands urged to either evacuate or stay at home.
West of Brisbane, the city of Ipswich is being swamped by flood waters in a situation described as "total chaos".
The death toll from the flash floods in Queensland is 12 so far, with many others reported missing.
State Premier Anna Bligh told Australian television that the number of missing west of Brisbane in the Lockyer Valley had risen.
"The police now are searching for more than 90 people," she said. "These are people who their families can no longer contact or find."
She added: "The one good news is the rain has cleared, so we`ve now got a number of search and rescue teams all ready to deploy into the valley to really start what might be a very gruesome search this morning for bodies and our police and emergency workers there are going to have a very tough day.
"I think we will all be shocked by what they will find."
The central business district in Brisbane was almost totally deserted on Wednesday, hit by a power cut that was intended to prevent generators becoming a fire risk if flooded.
Shops put up signs that they would not open.
The Brisbane Courier Mail said 50 of the city`s suburbs would be hit by flooding during the day, and it quoted Mayor Campbell Newman as saying some areas would be completely submerged.
He said that Thursday would "be devastating for the residents and businesses affected".
The Brisbane river had burst its banks at Yeerongpilly and Indooroopilly, flooding streets. The paper quoted city council flood modelling as predicting that 40,000 properties would be affected.
More than 6,500 Brisbane residents are expected to take refuge in three evacuation centres.
Local media said the peak for Brisbane could be in the early hours of Thursday and the level would remain until Saturday. It is predicted to be higher than the 5.45m reached in the devastating 1974 floods.
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