BRISBANE, Australia - Military helicopters searched Tuesday for scores of people missing after a tsunami-like wall of water ripped through an Australian valley, tossing cars like toys in the deadliest episode of a weekslong flood crisis.At least nine people were killed and 59 still unaccounted for almost 24 hours after the flash flood hurled untold millions of gallons of water down Queensland state's Lockyer Valley on Monday, state Premier Anna Bligh said. Authorities had grave fears for at least 15 of the missing, she said.
The valley funneled rain from a freak storm - forecasters estimated up to 6 inches (150 millimeters) fell in half an hour fell near Toowoomba city - into a stream that formed a path of destruction, lifting houses from foundations.- The torrent slowed and spread out as it moved downstream toward the state capital of Brisbane, Australia's third-largest city with some 2 million people.
- The Brisbane River overflowed its banks Tuesday and officials warned that thousands of houses in dozens of low-lying neighborhoods and parts of the downtown area could be inundated by Thursday.
"This is a truly dire set of circumstances for the people of Queensland, with more flooding to come," Prime Minister Julia Gillard told Australian Broadcasting Corp. television. She said she had been "absolutely shocked" by television footage of Monday's flash flood.
The violent surge near Toowoomba on Monday escalated Australia's flood crisis in Queensland state and brought the overall death toll to 19. Until then, the flooding had unfolded slowly as swollen rivers burst their banks and inundated towns while moving downstream toward the ocean.
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