Brisbane, the capital of Queensland, hit by the worst flooding in decades, offering a landscape of desolation Thursday, with 30,000 homes damaged, while at least one resident was killed. People evacuated from their homes during the last two days trying to assess damage, just hours after the floods reached their peak on Thursday at dawn.According to the weather, the water rose to 4.45 meters in the downtown, while the forecast predicted a rating of 5 meters. During the catastrophic flood of 1974, the river reached 5.45 m. Entire neighborhoods were submerged yesterday, and electricity was cut as a precaution to 116,000 subscribers to avoid electrocution.
The relief is tinged with despair at the sight of damage to homes and historic buildings in the state capital of Queensland, northeast Australia. This will require reconstruction efforts "worthy of the post-war," said Senior Minister of State, Anna Bligh. "The feeling is very mixed today.
There is some relief and I am grateful that Mother Nature has not been as terrible as it could, but people of our city are assaulted in their wake, by an intolerable feeling of anxiety, "she told Australian television's Sky News. "We are facing scenes of devastation and destruction incredible whole suburbs where only a few roofs float, businesses completely flooded," said the leader of Queensland.
"What I see looks like some places in war zones." The Australian Prime Minister, Julia Gillard, visited Brisbane and expressed shock at the violence of floods and worried about the economic impact of these floods. A director of the Bank of Australia has estimated that the floods could cost a percentage point to economic growth, which would represent approximately $ 13 billion.
Estimates of damage so far amounted to some six billion dollars. The official death toll of these unprecedented floods in a century in the region is 18 dead, 78 but also regrets missing after violent floods that swept the common west of Brisbane on the night of Monday to Tuesday, qualified by some as "tsunami inside." According to Campbell Newman, Lord Mayor of Brisbane, 8000 properties will be spared because of the magnitude smaller than expected from the flood.
"We must now come together to help people who have suffered the consequences to clean," he said, interviewed on television. A total of 11 900 properties, including 2,500 businesses were completely inundated and 14,700 were partially, said the mayor. He nonetheless warned that more floods were expected in the coming weeks.
The rainy season ends in March while the levees meant to protect Brisbane and its surroundings are close to their breaking point, "he said.
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