Brisbane braces for flood disaster

Selma Milovanovic in the Sydney Morning Herald: Large areas of Brisbane were bracing last night for a potentially catastrophic flood surge coming in from the Toowoomba region, where more than 20 people are now feared to have died in Monday's disaster. As dozens of people remained missing after the Toowoomba deluge, authorities warned that thousands of homes in Brisbane and the regional city of Ipswich were likely to be inundated over the next two days by the approaching flood, expected to be the worst on record.

Last night, the official death toll in Toowoomba and the Lockyer Valley stood at 10. Another 59 people were listed as missing. Queensland Premier Anna Bligh warned that grave fears were held for 15 of them. “With so many others outstanding and unaccounted for we still face very grim news as we continue the search and rescue activity,” Ms Bligh said.

Entire families were believed to be among the missing, and five children were among those confirmed dead in the wake of Monday's ''inland tsunami'', which turned city streets into raging rivers that swept away cars and houses.

“Many of the people who are stranded or unaccounted for are families and young children,” Ms Bligh said. “This took everybody so unawares that there was no opportunity in most cases for people to get to safety so we do anticipate that those numbers [of dead and missing] are very preliminary.”…

Image of an 1893 flood in Brisbane. I haven't been able to find public domain photos of the 2011 floods, which is why you've seen so many older images here. Apparently the conditions are too extreme even to upload photographs -- a sign of how extreme the disaster is