About 5,000 residents in the Hunter and Central Coast areas north of Sydney have now returned home following the storms, which caused damage estimated at hundreds of millions of dollars.

Power utility EnergyAustralia said almost 30,000 homes were still blacked out and some may not be reconnected until the end of the week as technicians struggle to repair the worst damage to its network in 30 years.

Paul Murphy, a businessman in Newcastle, said the devastation of up to one million dollars' (840,000 US) of flood damage at his electrical goods shop was exacerbated when he found looters had taken advantage of his plight.

"On inspection, I'd seen that they had smashed the display cabinets and taken the iPods, and they've gone for the top class sort of products, so it's just very, very sad," he told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

Pub owner Vanessa Loades said her premises in Newcastle was hit twice by gangs of looters who stole cigarettes and alcohol, as well as causing 250,000 dollars in damage to gaming machines that they tried to pry open looking for money.

Loades told Australian Associated Press that she had hired a security guard after her pub was first hit Friday, but he was beaten up when about 30 looters returned the next night.

Police said cars abandoned in the floodwaters had radios and possessions removed, while the Australian newspaper reported looters in boats had cruised swollen creeks in the Central Coast region stealing from empty homes.

Police denied complaints from victims who said they had been told nothing could be done about the looters because available resources were concentrated on helping the emergency response.

Among those killed as the storms swept the east coast were three children and two adults from one family, who died when their car plunged into a flooded creek after the road collapsed beneath them.

The Insurance Council of Australia said it had received 15,000 claims and estimated storm damage at 200 million dollars.

Stephen Delaney, spokesman for emergency services in New South Wales state, said authorities were concentrating on reaching a small number of people still isolated in the Hunter Valley and repairing storm damage as waters receded.

"Our people are definitely planning on working right until it's over and at this stage that incorporates right through to Friday," he said.

Health authorities warned people to keep away from the floodwaters where possible because it may have been contaminated by overflowing sewerage pumping stations.

Maritime officials in the state said stabilisation work was continuing on the coal carrier Pasha Bulker, which was forced aground in Newcastle harbour Friday by gale-force winds and huge seas.

Newcastle Port Corporation chief executive Gary Webb said that removing the 40,000 tonne vessel was a complex task.

"This isn't like backing a tow truck to tow a car out after an accident," Webb told commercial television.

Some coal loading resumed Tuesday at Newcastle, but operations are expected to be hampered by damage to rail tracks used to move coal into the port from mines in the Hunter Valley.

earlier related report
Bangladesh landslide toll tops 100
Chittagong, Bangladesh (AFP) June 12, 2007 The toll from landslides triggered by heavy monsoon rains in Bangladesh hit 100 Tuesday as hundreds of rescuers tried to clear tonnes of mud with little hope of finding survivors.

Police, soldiers and emergency workers involved in the search operation around the southeastern port of Chittagong said they were fighting a losing battle with continuing rain hampering the search effort.

"In one spot alone we found 14 dead bodies. We had to dig through ten feet (three metres) of mud for hours to locate the bodies," Chittagong fire brigade chief Rashedul Islam said, adding that they were the worst landslides he had ever seen.

"These helpless people were living in tin-roofed houses at the foot of hills. They did not have a chance," he added.

Landslides happen regularly in the hilly areas of Chittagong and experts have previously warned of disastrous consequences as a result of successive governments' failure to stop the illegal clearing of hill areas for housing.

Injured survivor Omar Akhter, 40, speaking from his hospital bed, said the body of his teenage daughter had been found but that his wife and eight-year-old son were still missing.

"It happened so suddenly and with such a huge power that it took me a while to realise what had actually happened," he said.

Officials said 100 bodies had been recovered from the mud in and around Chittagong, a city of 1.5 million people, while ten more people died in lightning strikes in four districts across the country. One other person was electrocuted.

The head of Bangladesh's military-backed emergency government, Fakhruddin Ahmed, told reporters while visiting the area that the government would take steps to stop hill clearing and prevent similar tragedies in future.

An official in the army's incident control room, Major Moeen, said more than a thousand troops, police, fire brigade and civilian workers had joined the search although he feared the "toll may climb further."

The landslides struck early Monday as people slept following several days of continuous monsoon downpours.

The rains also left a third of the major sea port city under around a metre of water, although almost all has now dispersed.

At least 89 people were injured in the landslides and admitted to hospital.

Islam warned that progress would continue to be slow due to a lack of mechanical diggers and sporadic rain.

"The moment we clear the water with pumps, the rain fills the void up again within minutes," he said.

Flights to Chittagong's Shah Amanat international airport resumed Tuesday after the rains eased and Chittagong port, which handles more than 90 percent of the country's foreign trade, reopened.

But Bangladesh's meteorological office said the rains would continue in some parts of Chittagong district for at least the next 24 hours although they were likely to be lighter than over the weekend.

The rains, however, were expected to cause further problems all over the country.

Officials said at least 80,000 people had been affected by flooding since the weekend, with southern Feni district and four northern districts worst affected.

Moderate flooding is a seasonal hazard in Bangladesh where at least 20 percent of the country floods annually.

earlier related report
China flood death toll rises to 76, as villages submerged
Beijing (AFP) June 12 - The death toll from nearly a week of heavy rain in southern China rose to 76 on Tuesday, as reports emerged of authorities deliberately flooding some villages in an effort to save bigger cities.

More than 13.5 million people have been affected by the disaster, which has caused an estimated 4.73 billion yuan (606 million dollars) in economic losses, the civil affairs ministry reported on its website.

According to the ministry, 76 people have died and 13 are missing from torrential rains that have battered the region since June 6.

The death toll on Monday had stood at 66.

"At present the disaster situation is rather grave in some areas as there are a lot of people out there and the damage caused by water is serious," Li Ronggen, vice governor in charge of flooding in Guangdong province, said.

"On top of this the rain is continuing to fall, making the fight against flooding and other mitigating circumstances much more arduous," he said in a Tuesday statement posted on the website of the state flood headquarters.

Tens of thousands of people were safely evacuated from up to 24 villages that were submerged by floods in six provinces and regions in southern China, China Central Television said.

Guangdong province has been the worst hit and authorities there have deliberately diverted water to flood six villages so that more important towns and cities would not be inundated, Xinhua news agency reported.

The unavoidable flooding of villages occurred when authorities opened sluice gates at a dam on Guangdong's Hanjiang river because water there was building up to too high a level, it said.

"Landslides and collapses have been frequent along the river dam area," Guo Chunshan, the chief of Liuhuang town which encompasses the six villages, was quoted as saying.

"If we hadn't opened the discharge gate, the dam might have overflowed and the losses would have been much more serious," he added.

According to the ministry, 788,000 people have been evacuated from the six regions and provinces affected by the flooding -- Guangdong, Guangxi, Guizhou, Hunan, Fujian and Jiangxi.

More than 479,600 hectares (1.18 million acres) of farmland have been damaged by the disaster, with crops completely destroyed on nearly a third of the area, the ministry said.

More than 144,000 buildings and homes have been damaged by the floods and landslides, while 69,000 have been destroyed, it said.

The week of devastating rains has marked the start of the months-long storm season for southern and eastern China, although it began later than in 2006.

From April to August last year, natural disasters killed more than 2,200 people in China, with most deaths in the typhoon and flood-prone regions in the south and east, according to previously released government data.

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