Australians brace for flood peak, more rain

Residents of cities and towns in north-eastern Australia were braced for devastating floods to rise further Wednesday as meteorologists confirmed that 2010 was one of the country's wettest on record.

Water levels in the largest affected community, Rockhampton, were expected to peak at 30.8 feet, or 9.4 meters.

Although the swollen Fitzroy River in the central Queensland city had not reached its predicted peak by evening, the weather bureau predicted more rain on the way, issuing a severe weather warning for flood-affected areas in the Fitzroy catchment.

Senior forecaster Tony Auden told the ABC that the predicted heavy rain could cause further flooding.

"The widespread falls of up to 50 millimetres could provide enough inflow to give some kind of river rises in the next few days," he said. "Those heavier falls should be very isolated, so small pockets of area and not a huge volume of water to go into the river system. But it's a case of having to wait until the rain hits the ground."

Authorities say a peak of 9.4 metres in Rockhampton would have left 400 homes with water above their floorboards, while about 4,000 properties would have had water flowing through their yards.

The worst flooding in decades has affected an area the size of Germany and France and caused catastrophic damage throughout the state of Queensland. Thousands of homes and businesses have been destroyed, with another 10,700 suffering some damage and about 22 towns have been cut off.

The floods have devastated crops, cut major rail and road links to coal ports,  forcing 75 percent of the country's coal mines — which fuel Asia's steel mills — to grind to a halt, which has in turn forced up world coal prices.

Ten deaths have been attributed to the floods.

News fears arose this week that the floods had brough with them crocodiles and dangerous snakes, already unsettled in what is their mating season, along with raw sewage, swarms of mosquitoes and power blackouts.