Police: Flood toll climbs in Australia as search continues for missing

By the CNN Wire Staff

January 17, 2011 -- Updated 0923 GMT (1723 HKT)

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• The Queensland premier says an investigation will look at the state's dams
• Police say 12 people are missing in the northeastern state
• "We have homes and lives torn apart," Premier Anna Bligh told reporters

(CNN) -- The death toll from flooding in the northeastern Australian state of Queensland has risen to 20, police said Monday.

The Queensland Police Service said authorities were still searching for 12 people missing in the flood-ravaged state.

In a televised interview four weeks after the state's flood crisis began, Queensland Premier Anna Bligh said Monday that an investigation would analyze whether river dams "work as they're supposed to and are operated as well as they technically can be," according to a transcript of the interview published on the government's website.

On Sunday, Bligh told reporters that recovering from flooding would be a "reconstruction task of post-war proportions."

"We have homes and lives torn apart," she said.

Police said Monday that 15 evacuation centers housed 1,300 people overnight across Queensland.

Since January 10, police have located 410 people who were reported as missing, the police service said in a statement.