After watching all that is happening world wide I think it is time for some reflection. Those who said it was global warming, then global cooling, then global weather change may have used the wrong title(s), but without doubt there is something GLOBALLY WRONG WITH THE WEATHER AS OF LATE. Extreme winters, extreme summers, extreme snow, extreme cold, extreme rain, extreme floods...EVERYTHING IS HAPPENING IN AN EXTREME MANNER. No longer can the Al Gore's and the like be laughed at or their theories ridiculed because there is now more truth to them than lie. There is a saying of BE CAREFUL WHAT YOU WISH FOR...YOU JUST MIGHT GET IT. Has Gore wished this calamitous weather into being that is effecting every continent, country and county worldwide?..You tell me because it sure looks so...
Floods hit Brisbane, Australia's 3rd-largest cityReuters/Tomas Guerin
A passenger in a car waves for assistance as a flash flood sweeps across an intersection west of Brisbane. More photos »
AP
A local resident walks past a flooded building as the Brisbane river burst it's banks to cause widespread flooding in Brisbane, Australia, on Tuesday, AP – A local resident walks past a flooded building as the Brisbane river burst it's banks to cause widespread …
By JOHN PYE and KRISTEN GELINEAU, Associated Press John Pye And Kristen Gelineau, Associated Press – Tue Jan 11, 6:26 pm ET
BRISBANE, Australia – For weeks, the flooding in eastern Australia has been a slow-motion disaster, with drenching rain devastating wide swaths of farmland and small towns. Now, rivers are rising in Brisbane, the country's third-largest city, forcing people to flee both suburbs and skyscrapers.
Flooding that has unfolded since late November across the waterlogged state of Queensland turned suddenly violent Monday, with a cloudburst sending a raging torrent down the Lockyer Valley west of Brisbane. Hundreds had to be rescued by helicopter Tuesday.
Greg Kowald was driving through the center of the town of Toowoomba when the terrifying wall of water roared through the streets, carrying away cars and people.
"The water was literally leaping, six or 10 feet into the air, through creeks and over bridges and into parks," Kowald, 53, told The Associated Press on Tuesday. "There was nowhere to escape, even if there had been warnings. There was just a sea of water about a kilometer (a half-mile) wide."
The flash flood killed 10 people and left more than 90 missing, Queensland Premier Anna Bligh said Wednesday. That raised to 20 the number of confirmed dead in all the previous weeks from high water.
Helicopters and other emergency vehicles were moving into the worst-hit towns in the valley on Wednesday, and Bligh warned that the death toll would likely rise.
[img=http://news.yahoo.com/nphotos/Australia-Flooding/ss/events/wl/122910australiaflood]http://Click Here[/img] to see photos of the flooding in Australia
Windows exploded, cars bobbed in the churning brown water and people desperately clung to power poles to survive in Toowoomba. Queensland Police Commissioner Bob Atkinson described it as "an inland instant tsunami."
"What we saw in Toowoomba was the water rise at lightning speed. Mother Nature has unleashed something shocking out of the Toowoomba region and we've seen it move very quickly down the range," Bligh said.
In Brisbane, 80 miles (130 kilometers) east of Toowoomba, Mayor Campbell Newman said almost 20,000 homes in low-lying areas of the city of about 2 million were expected to be swamped by Thursday, when the river system is expected to crest near the levels of a devastating 1974 flood.
"This is a truly dire set of circumstances," Prime Minister Julia Gillard told Australian Broadcasting Corp. television.
The Brisbane River broke its banks on Tuesday and was continuing its rise Wednesday — partly controlled by a huge dam upstream that has had its floodgates opened because it is brimming after weeks of rain across the state. Some streets and riverside parks were covered with water, though no major flooding was reported early Wednesday.
The city of Ipswich, home to about 15,000 people, was being hit by the water heading Brisbane's way. Floodwaters reached the awnings of stores in the town, where some 3,000 properties were expected to be swamped, Mayor Paul Pisasale said.
To the west, a deluge of up to 6 inches (150 millimeters) in a half-hour fell over a concentrated area Monday, sending a 26-foot (eight-meter), fast-moving torrent crashing through Toowoomba and smaller towns. The flash flood dropped as quickly as it came, leaving debris and cars piled together.
"There was water coming down everywhere in biblical proportions," Toowoomba council member Joe Ramia told the AP.
When the flood struck, he parked his car and ran for higher ground while watching the carnage below: cars turned into scrap metal and flung into a railway line; giant metal industrial bins tossed about as if made of paper; a man clinging desperately to a power pole as the relentless tide surged around him.
A rescuer pushed through the churning water and yanked the man to safety as Ramia watched. Others, including five children, were swept to their deaths.
"You were powerless to do a thing," said Ramia, 63, a lifelong resident of Toowoomba. "While we can rebuild, you can't replace people. ... I've never seen anything like this."
In Brisbane, people fled the central business district and left suburbs for higher ground. Officials warned them not to drive, to conserve drinking water and to prepare for power cuts to large areas of Brisbane and Ipswich as floodwaters rose.
Residents stood in line for up to four hours outside emergency services depots Tuesday to get sandbags, and shoppers jammed markets to stock up on bottled water, milk and fuel. Residents in evacuated suburbs were asked to prepare their homes for high water, then stay with friends or family on higher ground.
"There will be considerable impact on a large number of homes and businesses, and we need people to be taking action now to respond to that situation," said Neil Roberts, emergency services minister for the state.
Brisbane is protected by a large dam built after the 1974 floods. But the reservoir was full, and a water release that would cause low-level flooding was inevitable, Mayor Newman said.
Steph Stewardson, a graphic designer, said there was an exodus from a downtown area around lunchtime Tuesday when the river broke its banks. Stewardson, 40, hopped in her car and crossed the swollen river to collect her dog Boo from day care while waters started covering the boardwalk stretching along its banks.
Stewardson took shelter in her house, and plans to stay there — for now.
"I'm about 800 meters (half a mile) from the river on a hill, so I think it's going to be OK," she told the AP.
Search and rescue efforts were hampered by more driving rain, though the bad weather was easing and Bligh, the Queensland premier, said the search would get easier Wednesday.
In the small community of Forest Hill, the entire population of about 300 was being airlifted to safety in military helicopters, Bligh said.
Flash floods were possible through the week, and officials said rescue efforts were concentrating in towns between Brisbane and Toowoomba, some isolated by floodwaters.
Queensland has been swamped by floods for weeks that covered land the size of France and Germany combined. Entire towns have been swamped, more than 200,000 people affected, and the vital coal industry, ranching and farming have virtually shut down.
Bligh said last week the cost of the floods could be as high as $5 billion, the latest figure available.
The floods have also reached the bordering state of New South Wales, with about 4,500 people stranded, though the situation was not yet as dire as in Queensland. New South Wales is Australia's most populated state and contains its biggest city, Sydney.
