The situation remains very worrying, Monday, January 10, in north-eastern Australia for several days devastated by unprecedented flooding, while the third largest city, Brisbane, is threatened by flooding. New rainfall have indeed fell on the capital of Queensland state, which has two million inhabitants, and on resorts around, causing sudden rise of water and causing the death of one additional person.Dozens of cities are isolated or partially submerged by flood waters. Wooden houses were torn from their foundations and carried for several hundred meters away by torrents of water, which also screened cars in shop windows and ripped pumps gasoline service stations, said Steve Jones Mayor Lockyer Valley, near Brisbane.
The authorities have called for extreme vigilance and recommend avoiding travel in the most affected areas, especially as the rains are announced throughout the week. The inability of the wet soil to absorb excess water worries the authorities. The extent of flooding has forced some of emptying reservoirs of several dams that threatened to overflow, aggravating flooding downstream.
The floods that began around Christmas cover an area as large as France and Germany combined. More than 200,000 people and 10,000 homes were affected by the floods, the worst in fifty years, which killed six people confirmed. Flooding is already affecting the hard coal industry in Queensland, with coal mine flooded, roads and railways washed away.
The Office of Tourism Queensland also expects a negative impact on the sector, without yet being able to quantify it. Environmentalists said Monday that flooding caused the other hand the discharge of sediment laden with pesticides in the Great Barrier Reef, which threatens the fragile ecosystem of coral and marine life.
The disaster will also weigh on the economy, predicted the bank JP Morgan in a note Monday. "With more rain, it could take months before the waters recede and we do not know the extent of damage to basic infrastructure," said economist Stephen Walters of the bank. The flood damage are currently estimated at 6 billion.
JP Morgan has reduced from 3.7 to 3.3% its forecast for growth in Australia this year.
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