Serious floods threaten thousands in Australia’s third largest city

[Hannah Bell]

Australia’s flood crisis has taken a serious turn for the worse, with the official death toll from the wall of water that engulfed towns west of the Queensland state capital of Brisbane during the past two days now at 12 and emergency authorities predicting that it could reach 30. More than 90 people remained unaccounted for this morning. Even worse is to come today and tomorrow as the deluge overtakes Ipswich, on the outskirts of Brisbane, and surges through the capital itself.

Continuing heavy rain from a La Niña weather pattern has led to warnings that the inundation of Australia’s third largest city will exceed the destructive floods that submerged Brisbane in January 1974, killing 14 people and flooding almost 6,000 homes. The Wivenhoe Dam, built to “flood-proof” the city after the 1974 disaster, has proven unable to cope with the sheer volume of water—estimated at the equivalent of two Sydney Harbours per day—surging down its catchment valleys. Releases of water from the dam today will add to the flood heading to Brisbane.

Hundreds of people were evacuated from their homes at Ipswich last night, with about one-third of the city expected to go under water today. Evacuations also commenced in Brisbane, where more than 30 low-lying suburbs have been listed as being at risk. The Brisbane River is expected to peak this afternoon at around 4.5 metres, and to rise above the 1974 peak of 5.45 metres tomorrow morning when a high tide is due at 4 a.m. The flooding in Brisbane is now forecast to last for days, extending a crisis that has already affected large parts of Queensland since mid-December.

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2011/jan2011/flod-j12.shtml