Australia floods: Brisbane residents urged to evacuate

The authorities are urging people to leave parts of Australia's third largest city, Brisbane, which is facing its worst flooding in decades.

The city's mayor has warned that 6,500 homes and businesses are set to flood.

Flash floods have left nine dead and at least 70 missing nearby.

The waters are rising fast; one local official said he saw the river level go up by 1.5m (4ft 10in) in just an hour. Some 200,000 people have been affected across the state by the floods.

The flooding has caused billions of dollars worth of damage.

“Start Quote

Today is very significant, tomorrow is bad, and Thursday is going to be devastating for the residents and businesses affected”

End Quote Campbell Newman Brisbane mayor

The Brisbane River snakes its way through the centre of the Queensland state capital, and in places it has burst its banks already, says BBC Australia correspondent Nick Bryant.

Cars have been streaming out of the city and office workers have been fleeing the main business district, while lower lying suburbs have already been inundated by water.

Sandbags have been given out to residents in the city of two million people, as the flooding is expected to peak on Wednesday and Thursday.

Mayor Campbell Newman warned 6,500 homes, businesses and other properties were likely to be flooded by Thursday.

"Today is very significant, tomorrow is bad, and Thursday is going to be devastating for the residents and businesses affected," he said.

State Premier Anna Bligh urged people to prepare themselves: "For those who are living in some of the lower lying areas and the identified suburbs, now is the time to be making whatever preparations you can, and I would encourage you to be overly cautious.

A pane floats away in Toowoomba floodwaters

"It's better to be inconvenienced and find that your preparations were not necessary, than the alternative.

"I think the entire city of Brisbane, the Ipswich region and most of the south east, needs to prepare ourselves for enormous disruption."

One Brisbane resident told the BBC that supermarkets were already running out of food.

"I now live in Indooroopilly, a suburb in Brisbane and unfortunately now it has been listed as high-risk area," said Jiao Yu.

"I went to the supermarket just now and almost all the food has been taken - all people I saw on the streets seemed to be anxious, and shops and railways here have begun to stop running."

'Darkest hour'

In Toowoomba, just west of Brisbane, flash floods killed at least nine people with at least 70 missing.

A raging torrent of water hit Toowoomba on Monday without warning

A raging torrent of water hit Toowoomba on Monday without warning, following more than 36 hours of incessant rain.

A huge search-and-rescue operation was mounted, with helicopters winching people to safety, as many residents clinging to trees or railings for their lives, or trapped in cars or on the roofs of buildings.

At least two of the dead were children, and Prime Minister Julia Gillard has warned that the death toll is likely to rise.

Ms Bligh called the flash floods Queensland's "darkest hour" since the floods began at the end of November.

"This has been a night of extraordinary events," Ms Bligh told a news conference on Tuesday.

"We've seen acts of extreme bravery and courage from our emergency workers. We know they're out on the front line desperately trying to begin their search and rescue efforts, and we know we have people stranded and people lost," she said.

She called the event "a complete freak of nature", saying the flooding had come "out of nowhere".

Toowoomba resident Charlie Green told the BBC he was stranded by the floods.

"It would be ironic if it wasn't so tragic," he said. "Toowoomba sits in the cradle of an extinct volcano about 2,000ft (610m) above sea level, and we have just endured 10 years of drought, unable even to wash our cars with town water for the last several years.

"We are going to sit tight until we're sure that it's safe to move around. The flooded creeks are within a mile of our house so we can't get anywhere.

"We can't even get down the hill. We'll be stocking up on supplies from local shops."

The flooding has been so widespread that while some communities are still bracing themselves for the worst, in others the clean-up is well under way.

The forecast is for more rain to come, and there are reports of flooding in neighbouring New South Wales.

Ms Gillard has warned that the recovery will take a long time.