Brisbane turns into a city under siege, death toll reaches 34

Only roof tops were visible in large parts of the city as the flood waters from the Brisbane river breaching their embankments crested, sinking all two storeyed houses and keeping an estimated two million population locked indoors.

As the roaring river waters peaked one metre below predictions, the devastation was likened by a top official to an "aftermath of war".

Latest reports said the first death in the reeling city had been caused when a 24-year-old man was drowned when he went to check his home in the disaster zone.
With his death, the toll in the current flooding rose to 14 and cumulatively the figure of the dead, officials said, was 34 in weeks of heavy rains and flash floods which have hit the Queensland state since November.

Mercifully for the authorities, the flood waters which had reached peak levels of 4.46 metres around 1915 GMT, below levels that devastated the city in 1974, have started receding.

Residents heaved a sigh of relief as they woke up to the news that they had dodged the worst case scenario. However, 15,000 houses were completely submerged, some upto their roof, and more than 14,000 were partly under water.

Meanwhile, the Indian High Commission in Canberra said today Indians were not among the casualties in Queensland province.

The rising waters also sunk more than 8,000 commercial establishments and wiped off the city map, Brisbane's famous water front.The death of the young man prompted authorities to issue fresh warnings to others not to enter flood zones.

Queensland Premier Anna Bligh said 74 people were still missing in the floods.
Bligh said the man was trying to do the right thing by checking his father's property.
"But he shouldn't have been in those waters and unfortunately, it's claimed his life," she said urging residents to still stay out of floodwaters.

"Please stay safe out there, it's a dangerous place right now. We've already had one death, let's not see any more as a result of Brisbane's flooding," he said.

"Queensland is reeling this morning from the worst natural disaster in our history and possibly in the history of our nation," she said stating that the state was now facing a reconstruction task of post war proportions.

"As we look across our state we've seen three-quarters of our state experiencing the devastation of raging floodwaters and we now face a reconstruction task of post-war proportions. That is how we are seeing it and we have steely determination to overcome what we have seen in the last three weeks," she said.