'Brisbane will wake up to scenes they have never seen before ...'
What some have called an "inland tsunami" slammed into Brisbane, causing two major river systems to burst their banks, flooding roads and displacing thousands.
The surging, muddy waters reached the tops of traffic lights in some parts of the city, and as many as 20,000 homes and 3,500 businesses in low-lying neighbourhoods were evacuated overnight. The flood is expected to peak before sunrise today.
"We are in the grip of a very serious natural disaster," Queensland State Premier Anna Bligh said, predicting that almost 20,000 homes could be flooded at the river's peak.
"Brisbane will go to sleep tonight and wake up to scenes many will never have seen before in their lives," she warned.
At least 16 people have been killed this week and more than 43 left missing in the latest flooding. The flood peak hit Ipswich, a satellite town to the west, late yesterday. More than 1,500 Ipswich residents took shelter in evacuation centres but some fled homes with nothing more than what they were wearing.
In Brisbane, the swirling floodwaters rose, forcing about 3,500 residents to flee with a few possessions to evacuation centres.
Dams built to protect Brisbane and outlying towns were spilling floodwaters into swollen rivers. The Port of Brisbane was closed, shutting down Australia's third-busiest container port and a 5 million tonnes per year coal-loading facility.
Power company Energex shut power to some low-lying areas of Brisbane, including parts of the financial district.
Economists have raised their estimates of the economic impact of the flooding, with one central bank board member saying that the disaster could cut 1 per cent off growth - equal to almost US$13 billion ($16.8 billion). Agencies
Brisbane, a very popular tourist attraction and a town where many foreign students further studies. Brisbane is the third biggest city in Australia. A few days ago, Brisbane was hit with big rains which resulted in flood. Some called this flood a Inland Tsunami.
ReplyDeleteThis flood is the worst flood Australia ever suffered since 1898. Currently, 19 are found dead and more than 60 are missing.
Boo Weisheng.
Due to this, a lot of people's lives are being affected in various ways as the flood waters have poured now into more than 30,000 properties in that area already, leaving many people's homes being damaged and destroyed as a result of it and also about 103,000 homes were without power across Queensland,another area which was affected, on Thursday because electricity was switched off to prevent electrocutions and damage to electrical systems, which will cause a lot of disruptions to the peoples lives as well.
ReplyDeleteBesides this,the economy might also suffer as such because the damage done was already estimated at $5 billion before the floodwaters swamped Brisbane, but now with Brisbane also affected, it would cost the country close to $12 million more in spendings to solve this disaster and make the areas affected normal again.
As such, we should be thankful of what we have now because you never know when this kind of things are going to happen to us like what it did to the poor people affected in this disaster.
i sympathize with the the people in Brisbane, it was an tragic disaster. It was unfortunate because there really isn't a way to prevent natural disaster, it just happen and when it happen its devastating. I suppose it is a good thing that the goverment are trying their best to reduce the impact by building damns to protect outlying towns o of Brisbane.
ReplyDeleteOn the side note, this disaster should be a reminder to everyone that they should take better care of environment to decrease the chance of these incidents.