Australia flood death toll climbs to 16
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The death toll from Australia's Queensland flood has climbed to 16 after another body was found in Lockyer Valley, west of Brisbane, Queensland Premier Anna Bligh said on Friday.
"This morning the search and rescue teams located another woman who was found deceased near Grantham," she told reporters.
Bligh said that in Brisbane there were 53 people unaccounted for, including 12 whom police hold grave fears.
The premier said 86 communities across Queensland, about three quarters of the state, had been affected by flooding, with some towns hit three times by floodwaters.
Some communities, such as Theodore in central Queensland, had been evacuated entirely.
The premier said 4,436 people are currently living in 50 emergency evacuation centers.
A further 7,502 people have registered as being out of their homes.
Bligh said there are many thousands more who have not registered.
She said Queensland had been overwhelmed by support from other parts of the country.
"It certainly helps to endure an event like this, to know we are not alone," she said.
The premier said the state had ended the week with a determination to begin the process of cleaning up, recovery and rebuilding.
"We are on the job out there right now putting plans in place across three-quarters of our state to recover from this event," she said.
"I hope and pray that Mother Nature is leaving us alone to get on with the job of cleaning up and recovering from this event."
Bligh said the Macintyre River was steady in the Queensland border town of Goondiwindi.
"We no longer hold the concerns for Goondiwindi that we held this morning," she said.
Bligh said water authorities were confident treatment plants had not been affected and water quality could be maintained, but she urged Brisbane residents to conserve water.
Bligh appealed for interstate residents to consider Queensland as a holiday destination to support the communities.
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