Australia

BRISBANE, Australia -- Cleanup crews toiled under more pounding rains Thursday to clear mountains of debris in flood-ravaged communities across northeastern Australia, as one mayor warned it could take his city up to a year to recover from the worst flooding in decades.

Officials were only beginning to see the scope of the damage as river levels across Queensland state started dropping despite new thunderstorms. Floodwaters were expected to stay high in many areas for at least another week, and officials warned evacuated residents to stay far away from their waterlogged homes.

Australia put an army general in charge of flood recovery efforts Wednesday after weeks of heavy rains deluged the country's northeast, crippling the area's economy, including the coal mining industry.

Floodwaters have forced most of Queensland state's coal mines to shut and some may not restart production for months, ministers said at an emergency Cabinet meeting in Brisbane, the state capital.

BRISBANE, Australia  -- A woman drowned after trying to cross a flooded causeway in Australia, becoming the first victim of relentless flooding that one official has described as reaching "biblical proportions," police said Sunday.

Days of pounding rain last week left much of northeastern Australia swamped by a sea of muddy water, with flooding affecting about 200,000 people in an area larger than France and Germany combined. The rain has stopped, but rivers are still rising and overflowing into low-lying communities as the water moves toward the ocean.

On Saturday night, two cars trying to cross a flooded causeway were swept into a river in Burketown, in western Queensland state, police said. A 41-year-old woman traveling in the second car disappeared in the rushing water, and her body was recovered Sunday about 1.2 miles (2 kilometers) away, Queensland police said.