Flooding

The first of those killed in Toowoomba's appalling flash flood will be buried today.

Disaster officials say heavy monsoon rains drenching the eastern Philippines for two weeks have drowned seven more people, pushing the death toll to 40 with seven missing.

A New Zealand Civil Defence worker who is part of a team helping residents of flood-stricken Queensland is overwhelmed by the scale of the devastation and hopes waters subside so he is able to help in the worst affected areas.

Heavy rain in Otago in the past two days has resulted in several of the hydro-electric dams spilling excess water from holding lakes, but Environment Canterbury last night had no concerns flood protection stopbanks would not cope.

Flood hazard ratepayers on the Water of Leith and Lindsay Creek may find out in the New Year how much works to upgrade their protection will cost and when it will happen.

There is little justice attendant upon the victims of natural disaster; just as the occurrence of catastrophe is largely unpredictable, so too is the public response.

Efforts to contact a New Zealander known to be in India's remote Himalayan region of Ladakh hit by flash floods are continuing today.

The floods tearing through Pakistan's breadbasket have further weakened this already unstable country, inflicting more economic pain on its people and threatening a key pillar of the US-led war against Islamist militants - who stand to gain from the misery.