As many of you will be aware, the Australian state of Queensland is facing its worst ever natural disaster in recorded history. Crippling floods have affected a large number of towns and small communities across the state.

At first, there were major floods in central Queensland communities as heavy, record rain swept across the entire state, from the tip of Cape York at the very top of Queensland right down into New South Wales(a different state) during November and December.

Towns like Emerald, Rockhampton, Dalby and Chinchilla, and many were all inundated as rivers broke their banks and swallowed these communities.

However in recent days, more major rain events have caused some devistating flash flooding in the South East of the state.

8 people were killed and 72 are missing in the city of Toowoomba where a wall of flood water, described as an 'inland Tsunami' devistated the town.

Even in the last hour or so, the central business district of Brisbane, the states captial (and hosted the first Ashes test match) have started evacuations as the Brisbane River broke its banks a couple of hours ago.

The clean up is going to cost our already struggling governments possibly billion/s of dollars. Queensland also produces a large amount of fruit and vegetables that supply other parts of Australia and the world quality produce. We also export a massive amount of electricity producing coal globaly. Hundreds of thousands of crops have been destroyed and many coal mines have been flooded.

Major highways are cut, stranding tourists and supplies as most of Australia's food and supplies are transported by truck.

I live in Queensland and have been very lucky so far. The rain keeps going on and on and on and on all day and far into the night - its not very nice. However just two years ago we were in a crippling drought and had a massive water shortage - look where we are now!

I know many have seen this on the news, but I wish to raise some awareness among the Funkypool community.

The thing I struggle with is eight dead, and seventy-two people missing and no end of this rain in sight yet.

I have been watching the news reports from Queensland and have been shocked at just how extensive the floods are and the damage it has caused.

As you mentioned, there seems to be no end in sight and lots of people have lost everything, including their livelihoods.

My thoughts are with the families of those who have died and also to those who are missing

The Premier just confirmed in a press conference that there are now nine people dead, and sixty-six still missing. Five people were found alive.

Now 6500 properties (homes, business etc) in Brisbane are expected to be affected by floods by Thursday.

It 'aint good!

I was listening to the radio this morning. "11 people died from a wall of water" that just swept a town of it's ground.

Poor Aussieland!

Very sad to hear about this happening.

All thoughts are with the lives lost and missing.

very sad indeed.

R.I.P to those who died and hope the people who are missing are found soon

Puts a lot of other things in perspective....

Thoughts with all the roo's at this time

Very sad indeed

Twelve people have now been confirmed deceased. There are now over 90 people missing in southeast Queensland alone.

Brisbane's major sporting stadium, Lang Park (aka Suncorp Stadium) was also flooded this morning.

The centre of the city is in virtual lockdown as power and phone lines are cut off, with thousands of workers getting the day off today and over the next few days until the flood waters receed.

The worst is still to come in Brisbane, with the Brisbane River expected to peak between 5.2-5.4 metres at 4am local time tomorrow (6pm Wednesday GMT).

However the worst of the rain has passed, so we will hopefully not see any more flash flooding like we saw in Toowoomba two days ago.

Agreed

Very sad, but remember that this is bigger issue than just Aus, this is a global problem sri lanka, pakistan etc are having this as bad! Lets hope we all pull together to help!