Australia floods sweep south, trail of disaster grows

Reuters - 

Australian floods wreaked fresh havoc on rural communities in the south on Sunday, leaving a trail of destruction across four states, at least 17 dead and the prospect of reconstruction of historic proportions.

As tens of thousands of people in flood-stricken towns and cities in the north worked to clean out their homes and offices, heavy rains and floods meted out fresh disaster in southern Victoria state, the nation's second most populous.

Four major rivers in Victoria were in full flood, with 43 towns, 3,500 people and 1,400 properties affected. Hundreds of people have evacuated their homes, though no one has been killed so far in that state.

"They had the army in town. They were sandbagging on the west side. It was flowing fairly quickly," Paula Ryan, 40, who runs a mobile coffee van, told Reuters by telephone from Echuca on Sunday as it prepared to be swamped by the Campaspe River.

The floods began in the northern mining state of Queensland last month and have caused billions of dollars in damage from broken infrastructure, lost commodity exports and the paralysis of the state capital, Brisbane, a city of two million.

Queensland has accounted for all deaths so far, though the floods have also hit New South Wales and Tasmania states.

One central bank board member has estimated that the floods, linked by some scientists to global warming and rising sea temperatures, could shave up to 1 percent off economic growth in the December and March quarters, equal to around A $13 billion. (8.1 billion pounds).

Victoria's State Emergency Service described flooding in the north of that state as probably its worst since records began, with spokesman Hugo Zoller saying it would continue for days.

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