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 suburbs and skyscrapers.
Flooding that has unfolded since late November across the waterlogged state of Queensland turned 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 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," said Kowald, 53. "There was nowhere to escape, even if there had been warnings. There was just a sea of water about (a half-mile) wide."
The flash flood killed 10 people in one day and left 78 missing. That raised to 20 the number of confirmed dead in all the previous weeks from high water.
"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," Queensland Premier Anna Bligh said.
In Brisbane, 80 miles east of Toowoomba, people fled the central business district and left suburbs for higher ground as the Brisbane River was forecast to inundate low-lying neighborhoods today and Thursday.
Officials warned people in the city of 2 million not to drive, and to conserve drinking water and prepare for power cuts to large areas of Brisbane and the smaller nearby city of Ipswich as floodwaters rose.
Rivers are expected to crest Thursday near the levels of a devastating 1974 flood.
"This is a truly dire set of circumstances," Prime Minister Julia Gillard said.
Queensland has been swamped by floods for weeks that covered land the size of France and Germany combined. Entire towns have been swamped, with more than 200,000 people affected, and the vital coal industry, ranching and farming have virtually shut down.
"The power of nature can still be a truly frightening power, and we've seen that on display in this country," Gillard said.
