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Australian prime minister, Julia Gillard, warns country to prepare for higher death toll
Police are warning people to evacuate parts of Brisbane, Australia's third largest city, as floodwaters which have claimed nine lives since Monday surged towards the Queensland state capital.
The Brisbane river, which runs through the city, has already broken its banks in some areas, and residents of low-lying neighbourhoods were leaving their homes amid of the state's worst floods in decades – 30,000 homes face flooding while city authorities have warned that 9000 homes will undergo "serious inundation".
Queensland premier, Anna Bligh, said the people in the city and surrounding areas are "facing their greatest threat in more than thirty years".
"We are now in a very frightening experience," Bligh said. "Can I appeal to everybody that at times like this we need to all make an effort to stay calm, to be patient and to stick together."
She appealed to people to check on family and friends and to offer shelter to those forced from their homes. The floodwaters are expected to peak on Thursday at levels higher than the 1974 flood which caused widespread damage.
More than 70 people are missing after weeks of floods in Queensland, and police expect the death toll to rise. The victims include four children, and Bligh said that many of those still unaccounted for are families and young children.
The whole of southern Queensland has been declared a disaster area, and military helicopters were today searching for scores of missing victims. At least nine people were killed on Monday when a freak storm unleashed seventy millimetres of rain in two hours, causing a wall of water to sweep through the city of Toowoomba.
The flash flood was funnelled on to the town, upriver from Brisbane, in what police described as an "inland instant tsunami".
Cars were tossed like toys down the street, trees uprooted and businesses inundated as the floodwaters tore through the centre of town.
"Houses were ripped from their stumps. This is unbelievable damage," said Toowoomba mayor, Peter Taylor.
Clem Davis, a 33-year veteran of the Bureau of Meteorology, said the flash flood that struck the city of 90,000 people, was fundamentally different from typical floods due to rising river waters.
"With general flooding the hydrologists can actually calculate the water levels and when the peak of the flood is coming through," he told the Australian newspaper.
"With a severe thunderstorm, it comes down very heavily and therefore you can get a rapid rise in the levels," said Davis.
From Toowoomba, which is at 600m above sea level, the water flowed down the Lockyer valley and is now heading towards Brisbane.
The prime minister, Julia Gillard warned that the country should brace itself for the death toll to rise.
"In Queensland and around the nation, there are people who are frightened, people who are desperately waiting for news of loved ones," she said.
Reports from the town of Grantham say a wall of water up to 7m high swept through the area. Television pictures show houses and buildings destroyed. Authorities say they have grave fears for at least 30 people there, who had gathered in a primary school. Phone lines are down in the town.
"Our immediate focus is on the search and rescue effort in the Lockyer valley and Toowoomba," said the defence minister, Stephen Smith.
Search and rescue services have been hampered by continuing bad weather. At least 40 people have been plucked from rooftops by emergency services. Two hundred Australian Defence Force personnel are being sent to the area to assist.
Queensland has been in the grip of floods for several weeks. An area the size of France and Germany combined has been affected. Much of the flooding has happened in the north of the state.
"Mother nature has unleashed something shocking out of the Toowoomba region. What we have here in Queensland is a very grim and desperate situation," Bligh said.
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