Brisbane: Residents of waterlogged northeast Australia returned to homes caked in sludge and nervously watched the skies for more rain Friday while waiting for swollen rivers to recede.
In pictures: Floods in Australia
The worst appeared to have passed from flooding that covered an area the size of France and Germany in murky brown water for longer than a week, but torrents still posed dangers in partly-submerged towns in Queensland state and progress on assessing damage and rebuilding was slow.
On Friday, police banned boats from the swollen river coursing through the city of Rockhampton that is expected to remain near its peak for another 10 days.
The scope of the damage is not yet known, and fully repairing all of the infrastructure washed away or ruined could take years, the army general heading recovery efforts said.
"We still don't know what it looks like underwater," Maj. Gen. Mick Slater told reporters in Rockhampton, where people for days have waded through water that was waist-deep in places.
"Major roads, rail lines and bridges are all damaged, but we don't know yet how much."
Australia's worst flooding in some 50 years was caused by tropical rains that fell for days, starting just before Christmas. Some 1,200 homes in 40 communities were inundated and almost 11,000 more have water damage.
Nearly 4,000 people were evacuated, and police have reported 10 deaths in swollen rivers or floodwaters in Queensland since late November.
The flooding shut some 40 coal mines in the state, pushing up global prices, and has hurt wheat, mango, sugarcane and other crops. State Premier Anna Bligh has said the price of rebuilding homes, businesses and infrastructure, coupled with economic losses, could be as high as $5 billion.
Heavy rain fell Friday and could last through the weekend, the Bureau of Meteorology said. The rains aren't expected to increase flooding but could delay recovery and prolong the crisis.
