THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Australian police have recovered the body of a woman whose car was swept from the road in heavy flooding in the country's northeast, the first victim of the catastrophe.
A woman drowned after trying to cross a flooded causeway in Australia, becoming the first victim of relentless flooding that one official has described as reaching "biblical proportions," police said Sunday.
Days of pounding rain last week left much of northeastern Australia swamped by a sea of muddy water, with flooding affecting about 200,000 people in an area larger than France and Germany combined. The rain has stopped, but rivers are still rising and overflowing into low-lying communities as the water moves toward the ocean.
On Saturday night, two cars trying to cross a flooded causeway were swept into a river in Burketown, in western Queensland state, police said.
"We're just grateful there weren't more casualties," Queensland's Acting Assistant Police Commissioner Alistair Dawson said. "We're focused on preventing any more."
About 1,000 people were living in evacuation centers across the state, and it may be a month before floodwaters dry up, Dawson said. >>> Telegraph’s Foreign Staff | Sunday, January 02, 2011
