BRISBANE, Australia: A woman drowned after trying to cross a flooded causeway in Australia, becoming the first victim of relentless flooding,” police said Sunday. Days of pounding rain last week left much of northeastern Australia swamped by a sea of muddy water, with flooding affecting about 200,000 people in an area larger than France and Germany combined. The rain has stopped, but rivers are still rising and overflowing into low-lying communities as the water moves toward the ocean. On Saturday night, two cars trying to cross a flooded causeway were swept into a river in Burketown, in western Queensland state, police said. A 41-year-old woman traveling in the second car disappeared in the rushing water, and her body was recovered Sunday about 1.2 miles (2 kilometers) away, Queensland police said. “We're just grateful there weren't more casualties,” Queensland's Acting Assistant Police Commissioner Alistair Dawson said. “We're focused on preventing any more.” About 1,000 people were living in evacuation centers across the state, and it may be a month before floodwaters dry up, Dawson said. “It's hard to make the call that the worst is behind us,” he said. “It's a unique event _ parts of the state are still in response mode while others are in recovery. I think we're in the middle of the event.” Officials say half of Queensland's 715,305 square miles has been affected by the flooding. Queensland Premier Anna Bligh warned that cleanup efforts were expected to cost billions of dollars. Another severe thunderstorm was expected to sweep through much of southern Queensland later Sunday, bringing damaging hail and winds and the potential for flash flooding, the state Bureau of Meteorology warned. The city of Rockhampton, near the coast, is the next community in the water's path, and is bracing for flood levels to peak Wednesday. Officials have been evacuating Rockhampton residents for days, and some were still being moved Sunday. Mayor Brad Carter warned about 40 percent of the city could be affected by the surging waters, and residents could be forced to wait at least two weeks before returning home. Around 1,000 homes had water in their yards by Sunday, Dawson said. About 30 residents were staying at an evacuation center, while others have moved in with friends and relatives. Large parts of Australia's coastal northeast were flooded Sunday in a spreading environmental disaster as thousands of residents fled their homes to avoid the runoff from a Christmas deluge. Queensland State Treasurer Andrew Fraser described the floods as a “disaster of biblical proportions” and said the ultimate cost would exceed A$1 billion. The town of Rockhampton, 600 km north of the state capital, Brisbane, and with a population of 77,000, was cut off, with 40 percent of its houses expected to be flooded in coming days in waters over 30 feet deep. Australia's Bureau of Meteorology has said flood waters in the town could reach nine metres (30 feet) on Monday and peak at 9.4 metres on Wednesday, a level similar to floods that hit in 1991 and 1954. Parts of tropical Queensland could remain cut off for days by the floods, which have had a devastating impact on the state's economy, with coal mining and farming particularly badly hit. The rain has eased, but the waters are gradually working their way down the state's river systems to the coast. Roads and rail links have been cut along the east coast, while Rockhampton, at the mouth of the Fitzroy River, was slowly being inundated. Flood waters have already reached 8.8 metres in parts. Viewed from the air, crops and isolated townships were all flooded, with only roofs and the tops of trees and yellow road signs visible in places above the surface of the brown water.
