Brisbane Floods

Australian authorities have declared that the current floods have bet recent records.

Since November to last week Floods have unfolded across Queensland but it has only recently become violent.
Floods have left towns virtual islands in a muddy inland sea, devastated crops, cut major rail and road links to coal ports, slashed exports and forced up world coal prices.


The Australian floods, which have cut off 22 towns, have been caused by a 'La Niña,' weather pattern, which produces monsoonal rains over the western Pacific and Southeast Asia.
During a period of La Niña, the sea surface temperature across the equatorial Eastern Central Pacific Ocean will be lower than normal by 3–5 °C. The La Nina saw Australia record its third wettest year on record in 2010 and is expected to last another three months.


The flood disaster, say analysts, is forecast to shave around 0.4 percentage points off GDP, which equates to just over Aus$5bn of Australia's annual output of Aus$1.3 trillion.
Residents in flooded towns worked desperately to build sandbag levees in the hope of holding back the rising waters. Some 200,000 people have been affected by the floods and three have drowned. Apart from the risk of drowning, snakes and crocodiles are being washed into homes and shops.
Flood waters are receding in the Bowen Basin coal region, flooding continued further downstream.


Flood warnings have been declared for seven river systems, with one swollen river now 6km (4 miles) wide.