Queensland Premier Anna Bligh has warned the death toll from the devastating floods that swept through the Toowoomba region yesterday may rise "quite dramatically".Her warning came after eight people were confirmed dead and 72 people were listed as missing, as continuing rain was blamed for hampering rescue efforts.Ms Bligh said she hoped and prayed that many of the missing people, including entire families, would be found following yesterday’s sudden deluge, which saw floodwaters sweep pedestrians and vehicles away in Toowoomba, west of Brisbane.
Brisbane next in line: floodwaters enter the city“But given the circumstances we have grave concerns for many of the people who are unaccounted for,” Ms Bligh told reporters in Brisbane this morning.“We are anxiously worrying that we will see this toll rise.”She said authorities had searched all of the cars that had been swept away in Toowoomba and not located any additional people.Ms Bligh said the “absolute tragedy” had claimed young lives.“Half of the eight [confirmed deaths] so far are children,” she said. “We have a grave and desperate situation in the Toowoomba and Lockyer Valley region.” Ms Bligh said it was clear Queensland was now mired in a very different sort of disaster.‘‘It is testing our emergency resources and it will test us as a community and as people,’’ she said.‘‘It might be breaking our hearts at the moment, but it will not break our will.’’Bodies foundA woman and a boy were found dead in the Toowoomba CBD and a man and a boy were killed at nearby Murphys Creek after a massive body of water from weeks of heavy rain tore through Toowoomba, 125 kilometres west of Brisbane, yesterday afternoon.Troy Campbell of James Street Motor Inn in Toowoomba said the dead woman and two boys, believed to be her sons, had been in trouble in front of his motel near the intersection of James and Kitchener streets.He said one of the boys was rescued."There was some people who made way out there and managed to get a hold of him. He had held on to the light in the middle of the intersection."He was out in the water with them for a good hour or so."It is not known where the boy was taken to after that.The woman, 42, and her son, 13, had been clinging to a tree at the same intersection when they were washed away just after 2pm, The Chronicle in Toowoomba reported.Ms Bligh described an "eight metre wall of water" flowing down the Lockyer Valley from Toowoomba. "This is without doubt our darkest hour in the past fortnight," she said.Police Commissioner Bob Atkinson told reporters in Brisbane overnight that authorities would do all they could to rescue people overnight but he said he was not hopeful many rescues could be completed safely in the dark.Storm comingMore heavy rainfall and possible severe storms were expected in Toowoomba today.Ms Bligh said there were a large number of people clinging to rooftops in the Lockyer Valley, which is between Brisbane and Toowoomba.Helicopters that were sent into the Lockyer Valley to search for stranded residents were being held back by very heavy rain this morning.Ms Bligh said 43 successful rooftop rescues had been made in the Withcott area."Right now we have every possible available resource deployed into this region to search for those people that we know are missing," Ms Bligh said."This is going to be I think a very grim day, particularly for the people in that region, and a desperate hour here in Queensland."'Like a cyclone had gone through'Nine Network reporter Cameron Price is at Grantham, 100 kilometres west of Brisbane, and told the ABC the town had been devastated."The town is like a cyclone has gone through it," he said. "There are houses that are completely collapsed, cars that are halfway up trees, homes a kilometre away from where they were."The terrible news from here is that they took the bodies of two small children from the waters, they are the fifth and sixth victims here so far."Toowoomba was unprepared for this event. The city of about 121,000 people sits about 700 metres above sea level on the crest of the Great Dividing Range.Until last year it was gripped by a decade-long drought and was forced in 2009, when dam levels dropped to an all-time low of 7.7 per cent, to pump water from the Great Artesian Basin."Relatives and friends seeking information about people in these areas should phone 1300 993 191 to make inquiries and register their details," Queensland police said in a statement today.Washed away in carsSix people are confirmed missing in the Lockyer Valley - three young pedestrians and another three people who were washed away in two cars.Another 30 people have sought refuge at a primary school in Grantham, but authorities say contact with them is virtually non-existent.Toowoomba mayor Peter Taylor said there had been "unbelievable damage" to the city."It’s a real disaster scene where I'm standing at the moment in Russell Street, Toowoomba. There’s furniture and furnishings and it's just blown shops away."We have a railway line about 60 or 70 metres suspended in midair and two cars that are virtually unrecognisable that have floated and smashed into the rail."The flood will move through the valley this morning and will head further east into the Brisbane River and into Ipswich and Brisbane within 36 hours.The Bureau of Meteorology modelling on how that will affect Brisbane was due to be completed before sunrise.The flood peaks are dropping as quickly as they came, but they are leaving a trail of destruction.House swept awayAt least one house was swept away and another was shifted on its foundations at Murphys Creek in the valley.Queensland Fire and Rescue Service commissioner Lee Johnson urged motorists to take care when confronted with flooded roads."It only takes 15 centimetres of fast flowing water to sweep a person off their feet and into a flooded waterway. It only takes 60 centimetres of floodwater to push a four-wheel-drive," he said."People underestimate the danger of these waters and tragically 11 lives have been lost since November 2010 as a result."Every swift water rescue performed by fire personnel puts not only the victim's life but the lives of emergency services personnel who are forced to enter treacherous waterways at risk."
