A submerged car in Toowoomba on Jan. 10. The floods have killed 16 people since they began in December 2010 and have caused mass panic in Brisbane, Australia's third-largest city. Brisbane Mayor Campbell Newman said on Jan. 12 that at least 32,000 Brisbane homes were in danger of flooding. The premier of the state of Queensland told residents to prepare for "the worst natural disaster of our history."
Residents drive through flooded streets on Jan. 11 in Oakey, Australia.
Rockhampton residents relax as their home is surrounded by floodwater on Jan. 5. Seventy-five percent of Queensland has been declared a disaster area. Officials estimate that the Brisbane River will peak at about 20 feet above its normal level -- worse than the notorious floods that inundated the same area in 1974 and killed 14 people.
People watch floodwater swell a river in Toowoomba on Jan. 10. Forty-three people have been reported as missing as of Jan. 12. Many are expected to have been from the hard-hit town. "Families who are still holding out hope, some of them are likely to have their hopes tragically crushed," Anna Bligh, premier for Queensland, told reporters on Wednesday.
Damaged furniture inside a Toowoomba store on Jan. 11. The peak water level is expected to reach 15 feet in Brisbane, lower than the level reached during the 1974 floods, but its surrounding suburbs have not been so lucky. Officials estimate that in nearby Ipswich, 3,000 homes and businesses had been completely or partially submerged.
A resident along the Brisbane River takes a photograph as a boat floats past in the distance on Jan. 12. Brisbane appears to have avoided a worst-case scenario, but that will be little consolation to the thousands of people affected by the raging waters. Twenty-thousand homes and 3,500 businesses in Brisbane were evacuated overnight on Tuesday.
Christopher Roth tries to salvage what he can from his family's flooded home in Bundaberg on Dec. 31, 2010.
The streets of Dalby are inundated with water from the Myall Creek on Jan. 12. And the town may be hit by more flooding later this week. ''Queensland has already faced some dark days, and there are dark days still ahead," Prime Minister Gillard said on Wednesday. "But Australia is standing with you."
A member of the Australian Wildlife Rescue Organization rescues a kangaroo displaced by flooding on Dec. 2, 2010, at Lake Burrendong. Thousands of the country's domestic pets and livestock are at risk of drowning.
Brisbane's iconic rugby Suncorp Stadium is submerged by floodwaters on Jan. 12.
Debris litters the streets of Toowoomba following a flash flood on Jan. 10.
Australian farmworker David Ringelstein walks through a flooded paddock in the suburb of Bald Hills, north of Brisbane, on Jan. 10.
Geoffrey Scott wades into the waters to inspect his flooded caravan park in the northern Victorian town of Myrtleford on Sept. 6, 2010.
Floodwater and high tides cover a boat shed on the Maroochy River on Jan. 11 in Sunshine Coast.
A resident sits outside his home surrounded by floodwaters on Jan. 6 in Rockhampton.
Floodwaters from the Myall Creek edge closer to Dalby on Jan. 12.
Buildings in Rockhampton's center are reflected in the floodwater at dusk on Jan. 6.
