'Freak of nature' hits Brisbane
2008-11-20 09:46
Brisbane - A powerful storm cut power to several hundred homes and flooded streets along Australia's east coast on Thursday, sweeping away one woman in her car.
Police said they were still searching for the woman who disappeared from a town west of Brisbane in the overnight deluge - the second storm to hit the east coast this week. There were no other reports of injuries.
A pregnant woman was rescued while on her way to the hospital to give birth when her car became trapped between two overflowing streams, the Australian Broadcasting Corp reported.
The storm dumped almost 200mm of rain in a matter of hours on Brisbane, the Queensland state capital, and surrounding towns. Strong winds lashed coastal areas in the southeast corner of the state.
"It was just a freak of nature last night," State Emergency Services official Arie Van Den Ende said.
Nancy Huang said she saw water surge down her street in Brisbane early on Thursday and inundate several houses before pouring into her apartment and rising to a height of about two metres.
"It was pretty frightening actually, we were trying to get out and we walked out of the house and it was raining and the water was really high," Huang told the Australian Broadcasting Corp. "We were lucky we weren't trapped."
Creeks and drains overflowed into streets and backyards, collapsing bridges, flooding roads and sweeping away everything from backyard toys to cars in the worst flooding in decades, officials said.
Brisbane resident Dave Gilbank said he "woke up, looked around ... and found that my bed was floating in about four feet (more than a metre) of water".
Power was cut to about 800 homes and businesses, supplier Energex said. Queensland Premier Anna Bligh said emergency powers were in place, and troops would be deployed if needed to help in the clean up.
Part of the same area of the state was declared a disaster zone earlier this week after a what storm officials dubbed a mini-cyclone struck on Sunday, tearing roofs off houses, cutting electricity and causing other damage. Troops and other emergency crews were still working in the disaster area when the second storm stuck.
"This is now a very significant disaster across the southeast," Bligh said.
- AP