Australia hit by heavy flood

Flood-ravaged the east coast of Australia, after torrential rains and swollen rivers damaged thousands of homes and businesses and left some communities short of power, food and water.

The death toll from the crisis continues to rise when police discovered a man's body in a car submerged in a creek. Another man who vanished while travelling through the same area this week was still missing.

Floodwaters were receding in most places, bringing relief to a region that was battered by worse floods just two years ago. But there were concerns about food and water shortages in some communities and thousands were without power.

An aerial view shows rising floodwaters in Bundaberg on January 29.

Water engulfs houses

A man comforts his daughter on the roof of their flooded house in Bundaberg

Flooding in the east coast of Australia

About 120 soldiers were deployed to the hardest hit city, Bundaberg in Queensland, 240 miles north of Brisbane. The flooding, caused by the remnants of a tropical cyclone, forced some 7,500 residents from their homes, inundated 2,000 houses and 200 businesses with murky water and prompted helicopter evacuations of 1,000 people.

Clean-up begins 

As the clean-up began on Wednesday, some residents complained about dwindling food supplies. "People were almost coming to blows this morning at the local shop fighting over bread rolls," said Chris Pasky of Moore Park, just outside Bundaberg. "We've got a baby in the house we can't feed. We've just been forgotten."

Tourists and local residents take shelter at an evacuation center in Bundaberg, Queensland

In Brisbane residents were warned to conserve water after muddy floodwaters put pressure on the city's water treatment plants. The Queensland premier, Campbell Newman, told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation stocks of bottled water were ready to be distributed to residents if reservoirs ran dry.

In other areas officials scrambled to deliver supplies to residents still cut off by the slowly receding waters.

"We're discovering people who are isolated, without power, without water, and we're going to be getting some longlife milk and bread supplies in through four-wheel drive later today," said Pam Parker, mayor of Logan City, south of Brisbane.

In a waterlogged area of Queensland police have spent days searching for two men, aged 25 and 34, who disappeared as they travelled separately to work on Sunday near Gatton, about 55 miles west of Brisbane. Officers said they believed the body found on Wednesday was that of the 34-year-old, though formal identification was pending.

The hunt was continuing for the younger man, whose car was found on Tuesday in the same creek where the body was recovered.

Queensland residents suffered the worst flooding Australia had seen in decades in late 2010 and early 2011, when floodwaters killed 35 people, damaged or destroyed 30,000 homes and businesses and left Brisbane under water for days.

Australia has endured a summer of weather extremes, with blistering temperatures and dry conditions igniting hundreds of wildfires across the southern half of the country.

A man checks out flood damage to houses in Bundaberg, Australia, on Tuesday, January 29, in the aftermath of Tropical Cyclone Oswald. Torrential rains have sparked severe floods in southern Queensland along Australia's eastern coast.