- Massive clean-up begins, but victims now face cyclones threat
- Muck and debris leaves 'unbearable stench'
A 23-month-old Australian toddler is believed to be the youngest victim of the deadly flash floods that have devastated Queensland.
Jessica Keep was torn from the arms of her pregnant mother Stacey by the wall of water that hit the small town on Grantham.
Mrs Keep, who is six months pregnant, was inside her house comforting Jessica when the flash flood rushed in on Monday, sucking them both outside and into the torrent.
Tragic toddler: Jessica Keep was swept from her pregnant mother's arms by the raging torrent in Grantham, Queensland
Mrs Keep, still holding Jessica, was swept onto the nearby railway line by the force of the water.
'Her legs got caught in the sleepers and she was drowning with her baby in her arms,' Darren Keep, her brother-in-law, told the Herald Sun newspaper.
He said the torrent then tore Jessica from her mother's arms.
'The moment Stacey realised she didn't have her baby any more, she gave up and went under water, but within moments a helicopter pilot rescued her and took her to hospital,' he added.
Clean-up: Workers collect debris outside a flood-damaged house in Brisbane
Flooded:The Brisbane River is seen swollen next to several suburbs in the southern part of the city in this image taken two days ago by astronauts on board the International Space Station
Jessica's maternal grandmother, Dawn Radke, is also missing and her paternal grandmother, Pauline Magner, is among the dead.
Jessica's father, Matthew Keep, was sucked out of the garage and washed down to a neighbouring house by the flood, while her two siblings were later found alive, clinging to furniture in the ruined house.
Mrs Keep is recovering in hospital, but no trace has been found of little Jessica.
The devastated town of Grantham in the south east of the state was hit with another tragedy when Danny McGuire, the local fireman, lost his wife, daughter and son in the flood.
He has not yet told his surviving seven-year-old son, Zac, about the fate of the rest of the family.
'I've told him that we're still looking for them,' he told the Australian newspaper. 'But, yeah, I can't keep hiding it from him so I've got to tell him.'
Indefatigable spirit: Mud-covered friends take a moment out from the clean-up to have a sing-song round a piano that came in for a battering
Many suburbs in Queensland's capital Brisbane remained submerged after floodwaters inundated the riverside city on Thursday and 26 people have been killed across Australia's north east since the floods started last month.
Yesterday Australia's third-largest city started cleaning up stinking mud and debris after some of the worst floods on record, but forecasters have now warned a cyclone could hit.
The military have been mobilised to tackle the huge clean-up operation but the weather bureau has warned the threat of cyclones and fresh rains would last until March.
A cyclone forming in the Coral Sea, which had threatened the coast, had begun moving north into the Pacific, said state premier Anna Bligh.
'We'll keep watching it, but maybe our luck is about to change,' she said.
The flooding, which started before Christmas, continued in other areas of Queensland, with the 6,000 residents of Goondiwindi, south west of Brisbane, facing a record flood.
War zone: This aerial image shows residential suburbs and industrial areas inundated after flood waters devastated much of Brisbane
Daunting task: Volunteers tip barrow loads of mud from riverfront houses into the Brisbane River
Aftermath: Debris piled up at a medical store in Brisbane where the military are helping the clean-up operation
As the country's wild weather continued, police evacuated communities in neighboring New South Wales state overnight as flooding threatened the border towns of Boggabilla and Toomelah.
Torrential rain in Victoria state also led to evacuations in Halls Gap and Glenorchy, northwest of Melbourne, with a flood peak expected on Friday morning.
The town of Beaufort was also under threat with a nearby lake threatening to burst banks, police said.
Waterlogged: Brisbane's Suncorp Stadium resembles a giant swimming pool
Lending a hand: Former Australian prime minister and current Australian Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd joins other volunteers in the clean-up effort
Swamped: Men use a roadsign to clear mud in the Brisbane suburb of West End while Alice Richter-Ward cleans the mud from her Ryan Street home
Ms Bligh, who has described Brisbane as looking like a war zone, said officials are 'right in the middle of the emergency response'.
HEROIC SACRIFICE OF 13-YEAR-OLD WHO SAVED HIS BROTHER'S LIFE
The family of a Brisbane teenager have paid tribute to their son after he gave his life to save his younger brother from the floods.
Jordan Rice, 13, and his mother Donna were swept to their deaths after their car became submerged in the suburb of Toowomba.
When rescuers reached the car, Jordan - who could not swim - told them to save his ten-year-old brother Blake first.
Blake was saved but Jordan and his mother were carried away by the force of the torrents.
Yesterday Jordan's older brother Kyle said: 'He was really shy with everyone else, wouldn't say a word to them.
'But when it came to his family, well, he'd do anything for them.'
'Right now we are still rescuing people, we are still evacuating people,' she said.
'We need to brace ourselves, when this goes down and its going down quite quickly, it's going to stink - an unbearable stench.'
In the centre of Brisbane, a drop in the swollen Brisbane River left foul-smelling mud covering areas beside the city's cultural center and Wheel of Brisbane tourist site.
Aerial views of the city showed a sea of brown with rooftops poking out, but the water was receding.
Boats have been used in many areas to reach houses, with sofas and fridges floating in water. Residents have no idea when they might be able to return to their homes.
'Nobody told me this would become this serious, this terrible,' said Su Liu, a Chinese student studying marketing at the University of Queensland.
She fled her home near the riverside university on Tuesday as water poured into the second floor of her apartment building and was now sheltering in an evacuation center.
Waterlogged: The flooded Brisbane River spills into residential areas close to the city's central business district
Power has been restored to 170,000 homes, but power company Energex said 66,000 homes across southeast Queensland remained without electricity.
WANT TO HELP?
The address (from UK banks) for donations for the Queensland flood is:
Account Name: Premiers Disaster Relief
Appeal BSB: 064 013
Account No.: 1000 6800
SWIFT (also known as SORT) code: CTBAAU2S
Ms Bligh called on insurance companies to show compassion and flexibility. Many Queenslanders, thinking they were covered against floods, have discovered that is not the case, she said.
Economists have estimated the flood damage at A$5billion, with A$1billion of that to be underwritten by insurers.
'It's not in the interests of anyone in our community, including those companies, to stall or delay recovery,' said Ms Bligh, whose disaster handling has won wide praise.
No comments:
Post a Comment