CULTURA

«El bien está enraizado en la conciencia; el mal es un hongo»

Gianrico Carofligio es procurador antimafia, fiscal, senador y autor de novela negra

ANTONIO ASTORGA

Día 12/01/2011 - 04.01h

JAIME GARCÍA

-¿A un fiscal le «pone» enviar tipos a la cárcel?

-Nunca me he sentido satisfecho por un proceso que termina en condena. Aunque sea un criminal, no es agradable mandar a alguien entre rejas.

-¿Cuál es «su» satisfacción, entonces?

-Una investigación bien llevada que acaba en éxito. Cuando interrogas y usando tu inteligencia consigues la confesión. Lo echo de menos como fiscal.

-¿Qué pasa por la mente de un asesino?

-Nada. En muchísimos casos de homicidio que investigué, los motivos eran estúpidos, banales, y el homicida no experimentó nada fuera de lo común.

-¿Dónde surge la maldad?

-Hannah Arendt, en su libro La banalidad del mal, explica que el mal surge por motivos absolutamente banales. El bien está enraizado en la conciencia, pero el mal es como un hongo, no tiene raíces.

-¿Por qué se mata?

-De modo terrible, en el crimen organizado hay una racionalidad enferma, una locura, un estado de guerra: se mata a un enemigo. Hay un motivo.

-¿Y en la realidad?

-No hay ninguna justificación, ni enferma ni sana. Por un gesto estúpido y loco se arruinan las vidas.

-¿La realidad es escandalosa?

-Sí. Por la estupidez que gobierna muchos de los actos y las actitudes de los seres, incluidos y sobre todo los seres humanos inteligentes. Y por el poder del hombre. Poder y estupidez son escandalosos.

-¿Vamos a más o a menos en estupidez?

-La sociedad da muchos pasos hacia atrás, pero vamos a mejor. Y la estupidez siempre está al acecho.

-¿Cuántos casos ha investigado como fiscal?

-Han sido casi veinte años de duro trabajo...

-¿Alguna lección que no olvidará jamás?

-He descubierto que las personas no se corresponden con nuestros estereotipos. Hay criminales simpatiquísimos, que te cautivan, que no son malos, y con los que haces «amistad». Y hay personas «bien» que son una auténtica carroña, pura canalla. No hay que fiarse de los esquemas.

-¿La mafia es el cáncer italiano?

-Es un problema de algunas partes de Italia. En Calabria sobre todo, pero en Sicilia ya es menor.

-Aquí padecemos el cáncer de ETA, otra mafia.

-El de ETA es un tipo de terrorismo que ha usado métodos mafiosos (asesinatos, secuestros, extorsión...). Los métodos son similares a la mafia.

-¿Se acabará con la mafia?

-Sí.

-¿Cómo lo haría un buen cirujano de hierro?

-Arrestando a los mafiosos. Hay que extirpar el cáncer de la mafia. Es lo que deben hacer fiscales y policías. Meter a los mafiosos en la cárcel. Hay que trabajar para que el cáncer no se reproduzca. Y actuar en el tejido social, labor ya de educadores.

-¿De qué modo se debe «educar» a los jóvenes?

-Haciéndoles ver que la legalidad es conveniente. En la labor quirúrgica de represión, una parte muy importante es atacar el patrimonio de la mafia. 

-¿Por qué triunfa la cultura de la banalidad?

-La televisión comercial propone modelos totalmente banalizantes. En Italia, la cultura del berlusconismo ha hecho un inmenso daño. Muchos jóvenes solo piensan en convertirse en cosas que le suscita el imaginario televisivo, que es vulgar.

-Eso ya lo advertía Umberto Eco.

-Cualquiera con un mínimo cerebro está en contra de Berlusconi. No es una cuestión de derechas o de izquierdas, sino de sentido común.

-¿Y cómo se mantiene él en lo más alto del poder?

-A don Silvio le quedan dos telediarios, como se diría aquí. Berlusconi tiene un enorme poder económico, político y mediático, pero está al caer.

-¿Italia está cansada del «berlusconismo»?

-La contaminación ha sido muy profunda.

-A usted no le tiembla el pulso ante el folio en blanco. No conoce el «miedo escénico», pues.

-Ser magistrado me ha ayudado para darle una ambientación creíble a mis novelas. En ellas no hay cosas «nada reales» que encontramos en otros libros.

-¿Por qué escribe novela negra?

-Porque así vencía el miedo.

Chef de emociones

De la mano de un romántico abogado de Bari, desengañado en amores, llamado Guido Guerrieri, el italiano Gianrico Carofiglio (Bari, 1961) arrasa en la novela negra (un millón de ejemplares vendidos) con 5 obras exquisitas cocinadas a fuego lento; su última se titula «Las perfecciones provisionales» (La Esfera de los Libros). Quinta estación literaria y cinco grandes premios. Guido y Gianrico luchan por la justicia en tierra corrompida. «Me gusta contar historias realistas. Hay dos tipos de libros: a) cuando en una hora se te olvida lo que has leído; b) si después de leerlo, reflexionas. Pienso que mis obras pertenecen a la segunda categoría». ¿Guerrieri es el alter/ego-Carofiglio? «Si le encanta al público femenino, sí. Bromas aparte, es un personaje que por la edad, estudios, trabajo... tiene muchos elementos biográficos en común conmigo. Mis novelas son autobiografías de la emoción».

THE APPRAISAL

Even for Chefs, Home Kitchen Can Be Tight Fit

Chang W. Lee/The New York Times

Jehangir Mehta, the owner of two restaurants and a contestant on “Iron Chef,” in his home kitchen in Murray Hill.

By CHRISTINE HAUGHNEY

Published: January 10, 2011

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While some New Yorkers eat out or order in so often that they have been known to use kitchen cabinets as shoe storage, real estate brokers continue to talk up the merits of apartments that feature “chef’s kitchens.” The term conjures up visions of professionals using acres of counter space and island stoves to perfect their braising and baking — like Julia Child’s kitchen memorialized in the Smithsonian.

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Suzanne DeChillo/The New York Times

The chef Anita Lo in her kitchen at her apartment on Charles Street. Her weekend house has a chef’s kitchen.

But just as New York’s finest art is found on the walls of the city’s bankers and not on the walls of its celebrated artists, most apartments with chef’s kitchens are not owned or rented by real chefs. In fact, most chefs, like most other New Yorkers, struggle to stretch every cranny of kitchen space.

Jehangir Mehta works from an 8-by-8-foot kitchen in Murray Hill that he and his wife renovated three years ago. While he loves his $5,000 Jade stove and his Bosch dishwasher, Mr. Mehta, the owner of Graffiti in the East Village and Mehtaphor in TriBeCa and a contestant on the television program “Iron Chef,” does not have room to do much but stand and turn around. His twins, Xaera and Xerxes, who turn 2 in February, often sit on the counters as he works. Most chefs he knows have modest kitchens.

“A lot of them who are here are living in a regular-size apartment,” Mr. Mehta said, “and you just have to make do with what you have.”

Anita Lo, the owner and chef at the West Village restaurant Annisa and a former contestant on the show “Top Chef Masters,” has a chef’s kitchen at her weekend house on Long Island. But on weekdays she lives in a walk-up on Charles Street. The dimly lighted kitchen has the counter space of two subway seats, and an outdated stove used to store pans. Her refrigerator, she said, is part Manhattan bachelor pad with “booze, water, condiments,” and part nutty professor with cheese cultures and “goose fat from 1980-something.”

Jo-Ann Makovitzky and her husband, Marco Moreira, are both chefs and owners of Tocqueville and 15 East in Union Square. Before they had their daughter, they so rarely used the 6-by-10-foot galley kitchen in their Upper West Side rental that Con Edison suggested they turn their stove’s gas off.

Just before the birth of their daughter, Francesca, they renovated their kitchen with a four-burner gas stove. Now their kitchen is large enough to entertain guests and for husband and wife to each have a cutting area.

But Ms. Makovitzky, who also caters dinner parties for wealthy clients, stressed that it still had its limits. She stores her beloved copper pots in the oven and has little space to bake. There is not enough room to roll out dough or to use her KitchenAid mixer. “It’s surely not like the kitchens when we go into my clients’ homes,” she said.

Literary License

A listing for a triplex town house at 323A East 50th Street ($2.295 million) begins with a tribute to Ralph Waldo Emerson: “Earth laughs in flowers.” It goes on: “Jolly jonquils could have you tiptoeing over the potted tulips which you personally planted.” In this home, buyers can “read the paper, sip some wine over dinner al fresco or simply lollygag after a long day on one outdoor level, while you muse on and mull over your planting schemes for your other outdoor level.”

One Can Dream

A full-floor penthouse once rented by Donny Deutsch at 502 Park Avenue, with five bedrooms, eight bathrooms (two in the master bedroom), a study and four terraces, can be yours for $25 million.

And That’s Not All

A $19 million maisonette at 998 Fifth Avenue, across the street from the Metropolitan Museum of Art, has not only wood-paneled walls and a climate control system for every room, but also a separate cooling room, “which you can use for your furs and your wine,” said Cornelia Eland, a Stribling broker.

No Ikea Here

A four-bedroom condo at 33 Vestry Street ($14.95 million) will give Google a workout with its “Basaltina stone tiles and Mafi wide plank wood flooring,” the “open-plan kitchen by Bulthaup B-3,” the master bathroom’s “Novelda limestone flooring with Gris de Sienna and Novelda crème micro line chiseled wall” and fireplaces with “Pompeii stone hearths.”

A version of this article appeared in print on January 11, 2011, on page A23 of the New York edition.

60 First Graders, 4 Teachers, One Loud New Way to Learn

Michael Nagle for The New York Times

The New American Academy features large classes with several teachers each. More Photos »

By SHARON OTTERMAN

Published: January 10, 2011

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Sixty children in a first-grade class can get loud — sometimes too loud for a teacher to explain a lesson.

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60 Students Per Class

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Michael Nagle for The New York Times

Andrea Nolet is a teacher at the New American Academy. More Photos »

So while waiting for her teacher to come by, one little girl arranged the pennies she had been given to practice subtraction into a smiley face. Another shook her pennies in a plastic bag. A high-pitched argument broke out over someone’s missing quarter.

“We don’t know what we are supposed to be doing, but we are learning about math,” Thea Burnett, 6, said.

Across the room, a second teacher, Jennifer McSorley, successfully led the class’s weakest students in a counting rhyme. But when she leaned forward out of her chair to write a word on an easel, a 6-year-old boy moved it, and she fell when she tried to sit back down.

“Jahmeer, sit down,” Ms. McSorley demanded, unharmed but flustered. “I could have hurt myself very badly.” Then another boy ran off to hide under an easel. Someone grabbed someone else’s pennies. The noise snowballed.

All this was the early stages of an audacious public education experiment taking place in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, one that its founder hopes will revolutionize both how students learn and how teachers are trained. Instead of assigning one teacher to roughly 25 children, the New American Academy began the school year with four teachers in large, open classrooms of 60 students. The school stresses student independence over teacher-led lessons, scientific inquiry over rote memorization and freedom and self-expression over strict structure and discipline. The founder, Shimon Waronker, developed the idea with several other graduate students at Harvard. It draws its inspiration, he said, from Phillips Exeter Academy, an elite boarding high school in New Hampshire where students in small classes work collaboratively and hold discussions around tables.

But Mr. Waronker decided to try out the model in one of the nation’s toughest learning environments, a high poverty elementary school in which 20 percent of the children have been found to have emotional, physical or learning disabilities. The idea, he said, was to prove that his method could help any child, and should be widely used elsewhere. “I didn’t want to create an environment that wasn’t real for everyone else and then say, look at my success,” he said.

The challenges have been considerable. Faced with out-of-control classroom situations, Mr. Waronker, 42, had to rethink his idea that his model could work for even the most disturbed children. By January, three children who were violent had been moved to more-structured environments; seven other first graders moved away or withdrew, reducing the class size to 50.

The school was founded with the strong backing of Joel I. Klein, the former schools chancellor, who frequently lauded Mr. Waronker for his efforts as the principal of a tough middle school in the South Bronx. They found a space in an elementary school three blocks from Mr. Waronker’s home in Crown Heights, and in a special deal with the teachers’ union, he won the right to pay teachers on a scale that considered performance.

While the model flies against efforts to keep class sizes low, Mr. Waronker notes that the teacher-student ratio is lower than in most schools. At its heart is the idea that the teachers, not to mention the students, will collaborate and learn from one another, rather than being isolated in separate classrooms. He hired one $120,000-per-year master teacher per class. Most of the others are novice early childhood teachers, which recreates the staff composition in typical high-poverty schools.

New American Academy opened with 126 kindergartners and first graders and at least eight adults per classroom, including intern principals and paraprofessionals assigned to disabled children. It will expand by one grade per year until it reaches the fifth grade, and the teachers will stay with the same children every year, to build accountability for their learning. There is no assistant principal, dean or art teacher, saving money for classroom salaries.

Lessons are a series of complex choreographies. In the 2,000-square-foot kindergarten, for example, each child is assigned a “university”— a grouping by skill level — and another group by color: blue, red or green. Every 40 minutes or so, the children regroup in a different part of the room. During a visit in November, an observer noticed that each move led to the children’s standing up, running, talking, and then having to quiet down again.

“This is the hardest moment of the day,” said Lorraine Scorsone, the master teacher in the kindergarten, as eight adults tried to wrangle the children into a semicircle for group reading time. “In early childhood, disengaging is very difficult, and moving to another activity is very difficult.”

Ms. Scorsone, with 23 years of experience, had what appeared to be a magical touch, and the children listened raptly one day in November as she explained how a banana travels from foreign lands to local stores. But the other teachers, who do the bulk of the teaching, had more trouble gaining the attention of the children, who lay on carpets looking at the ceiling or fiddled with belts and shoelaces on the outskirts of lessons.

“Ewww,” squealed a boy named Ethan when he was told that the class would plant a banana tree later that day. Other children began mimicking the sound, which they had been making earlier. “Ethan, stop it,” said his teacher, Pepe Gutierrez. “I don’t know why you are screaming.”

The first grade was tougher, with less-experienced teachers and more children who were violent. In the first two months of school, a student pulled a chunk of an adult’s hair out, and an ambulance crew was called twice to calm a child. Eight weeks into the year, the only student work visible on the blue-painted walls was a poster with finger-painted hand prints and the words “Hands Are Not for Hitting.”

“Many of the children have already had a year in what I would call a state of nature, when Rousseau spoke about people who live under no civilization,” Mr. Waronker said, referring to the children’s experience in a regular public school kindergarten. Fifteen children still could not recognize letters, and only one-third were at grade level. “This is messy work — this is the front lines.”

In the front of the room, Kathleen Kearns, a first-year teacher, strained to get her 20 students to understand how to use a chart to classify similarities and differences between two characters in a book. About half a dozen students refused to sit in their places.

“I need you here; your job is here,” she said to one, trying to be heard. After class, she said, “I am exhausted at the end of the day.”

It is the same struggle that first-year teachers across the city face, but the difference, Mr. Waronker said, is that in his school, it is out in the open. Other teachers can offer advice and pitch in, and they have 90 minutes of joint planning time each morning. The intensive collaboration, he believes, is what will cause his model, while admittedly still in a “trial-and-error” phase, to ultimately surpass others.

Indeed, by this month, there were significant improvements. Children appeared more focused during lessons. Jahmeer decided to play with pencils rather than do his counting work sheet, but he stayed in his seat, and another child asked if he needed help. One boy started crying, but not because someone pushed him; he wanted to have a turn writing his answer on the board.

“It’s tough on them, it’s tough on all of us,” Keema Flourney, the first-grade master teacher, said of her teachers, “but they are pulling through.”

Next year, Mr. Waronker said, he will hire more-experienced teachers, because expecting that novices could learn quickly enough from the master teachers was wrong. “I put added stressors that shouldn’t have been there,” he said.

Most of the teachers said they felt the school’s model would show good results over time. Several parents praised the school’s inclusiveness and its effort to offer something different. But one father, who withdrew his daughter, said the school was not for her because of her behavior problems.

The first-year teacher who had been leading the penny lesson in November for Thea and 19 other children, Daniella Schonbuch, while the master teacher was away, said she calmed herself after tough days by remembering that she would have years to build progress with her students. By January, she was leading a regular morning French lesson.

“It’s small moments, it really is,” said Ms. McSorley, the first-grade teacher whose chair had been pulled out from under her. “We are still in the process of figuring out what works for the kids, and what works today does not always work tomorrow.”

A version of this article appeared in print on January 11, 2011, on page A1 of the New York edition
.

El pretratamiento con atorvastatina disminuye los niveles de marcadores tempranos de isquemia miocárdica después de cirugía coronaria. Estudio observacional

El pretratamiento con atorvastatina disminuye los niveles de marcadores tempranos de isquemia miocárdica después de cirugía coronaria. Estudio observacional Atorvastatin pretreatment diminishes the levels of myocardial ischemia markers early after CABG operation: an observational study. Ege E, Dereli Y, Kurban S, Sarigül A. Selçuk University, Meram Medical School, Department of Cardiovascular Surgery, Konya, Turkey. J Cardiothorac Surg. 2010 Aug 13;5:60.   Abstract BACKGROUND: Statin pretreatment has been associated with a decrease in myocardial ischemia markers after various procedures and cardiovascular events. This study examined the potential beneficial effects of preoperative atorvastatin treatment among patients undergoing on-pump CABG operation. METHODS: Twenty patients that had received atorvastatin treatment for at least 15 days prior to the operation and 20 patients who had not received any antihyperlipidemic agent prior to surgery were included in this study. CK-MB and troponin I levels were measured at baseline and 24 hours after the operation. Perioperative variables were also recorded. RESULTS: Twenty-four hours after the operation, troponin I and CK-MB levels were significantly lower in the atorvastatin group: for CK-MB levels, 12.9 +/- 4.3 versus 18.7 +/- 7.4 ng/ml, p = 0.004; for troponin I levels, 1.7 +/- 0.3 versus 2.7 +/- 0.7 ng/ml, p < 0.001. In addition, atorvastatin use was associated with a decrease in the duration of ICU stay. CONCLUSIONS: Preoperative atorvastatin treatment results in significant reductions in the levels of myocardial injury markers early after on-pump CABG operation, suggesting a reduction in perioperative ischemia in this group of patients. Further studies are needed to elucidate the mechanisms of these potential benefits of statin pretreatment   Artí­culo en PDF Impacto de la terapia preoperatoria con estatinas sobre la evolución postoperatoria adversa en pacientes con cirugía vascular Impact of Preoperative Statin Therapy on Adverse Postoperative Outcomes in Patients Undergoing Vascular Surgery Le Manach, Yannick M.D; Ibanez Esteves, Cristina M.D.; Bertrand, Michelle M.D.; Goarin, Jean Pierre M.D.; Fléron, Marie-Hélène M.D.; Coriat, Pierre M.D.; Koskas, Fabien M.D., Ph.D.; Riou, Bruno M.D., Ph.D.; Landais, Paul M.D., Ph.D. Anesthesiology January 2011,14 - Issue 1 - pp 98-104. doi:10.1097/ALN.0b013e31820254a6 Abstract Background: Chronic statin therapy is associated with reduced postoperative mortality. Renal and cardiovascular benefits have been described, but the effect of chronic statin therapy on postoperative adverse events has not yet been explored. Methods: In this observational study involving 1,674 patients undergoing aortic reconstruction, we prospectively assessed chronic statin therapy compared with no statin therapy, with regard to serious outcomes, by propensity score and multivariable methods. Results: In propensity-adjusted multivariable logistic regression (c-index: 0.83), statins were associated with an almost threefold reduction in the risk of death in patients undergoing major vascular surgery (odds ratio: 0.40; 95% CI: 0.28-0.59) and an almost twofold reduction in the risk of postoperative myocardial infarction (odds ratio: 0.52; 95% CI: 0.38-0.71). Likewise, the use of chronic statin therapy was associated with a reduced risk of postoperative stroke and renal failure. Statins did not significantly reduce the risk of pneumonia, multiple organ dysfunction syndrome, and surgical complications; however, in the case of postoperative multiple organ dysfunction syndrome (odds ratio: 0.34; 95% CI: 0.12-0.94) and surgical complications (odds ratio: 0.39; 95% CI: 0.17-0.86), reduced mortality was observed. Conclusions: Chronic statin therapy was associated with a reduction in all cardiac and vascular outcomes after major vascular surgery. Furthermore, in major adverse events, such as multiple organ dysfunction syndrome and surgical complications, statins were also associated with decreased mortality. Enlace para leer el artículo completo; http://journals.lww.com/anesthesiology   Impacto de la terapia preoperatoria con estatinas sobre la evoluión postoperatoria de pacientes con cirugía cardiaca: meta análisis de más de 30,000 pacientes Impact of preoperative statin therapy on adverse postoperative outcomes in patients undergoing cardiac surgery: a meta-analysis of over 30,000 patients. Liakopoulos OJ, Choi YH, Haldenwang PL, Strauch J, Wittwer T, Dörge H, Stamm C, Wassmer G, Wahlers T. Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery, Heart Center, University Hospital of Cologne, Kerpener Strasse 62, 50924 Cologne, Germany. Eur Heart J. 2008 Jun;29(12):1548-59. Epub 2008 May 27   Abstract AIMS: To determine the strength of evidence for preoperative statin use for prevention of adverse postoperative outcomes in patients undergoing cardiac surgery. METHODS AND RESULTS: After literature search in major databases, 19 studies were identified [three RCT (randomized prospective clinical trials), 16 observational] that reported outcomes of 31 725 cardiac surgery patients with (n = 17 201; 54%) or without (n = 14 524; 46%) preoperative statin therapy. Outcomes that were analysed included early all-cause mortality (30-day mortality), myocardial infarction (MI), atrial fibrillation (AF), stroke and renal failure. Odds ratio (OR) with 95% confidence intervals (95%CI) were reported using fixed or random effect models and publication bias was assessed. Preoperative statin therapy resulted in a 1.5% absolute risk reduction (2.2 vs. 3.7%; P < 0.0001) and 43% odds reduction for early all-cause mortality (OR 0.57; 95%CI: 0.49-0.67). A significant reduction (P < 0.01) in statin pretreated patients was also observed for AF (24.9 vs. 29.3%; OR 0.67, 95%CI: 0.51-0.88), stroke (2.1 vs. 2.9%, OR 0.74, 95%CI: 0.60-0.91), but not for MI (OR 1.11; 95%CI: 0.93-1.33) or renal failure (OR 0.78, 95%CI: 0.46-1.31). Funnel plot and Egger's regression analysis (P = 0.60) excluded relevant publication bias. CONCLUSION: Our meta-analysis provides evidence that preoperative statin therapy exerts substantial clinical benefit on early postoperative adverse outcomes in cardiac surgery patients, but underscores the need for RCT trials. Enlace para leer el artículo completo: http://eurheartj.oxfordjournals.org/content/29/12/1548.full.pdf

Atentamente Dr. Juan Carlos Flores-Carrillo Anestesiología y Medicina del Dolor www.anestesia-dolor.org

Arboles de navidad en la basura...

Miedo...

Devastating Australian Floodwaters Reach City of Brisbane

Eddie Safarik/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

Alan Attard, front left, helped transfer his parents’ possessions to higher ground from their flooded home in Ipswich, Australia.

By MERAIAH FOLEY

Published: January 11, 2011

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SYDNEY, Australia — Muddy floodwaters began swamping thousands of homes and businesses in Brisbane, Australia’s third-largest city, and nearby townships on Wednesday as residents braced for further inundations in what has become one of Australia’s most devastating natural disasters.

At least 12 people have been killed this week, bringing to 22 the death toll from tropical flooding that has plagued the northeastern state of Queensland since November. Five children were among the latest casualties, caught up in a freak flood that late Monday tore through the highland city of Toowoomba, just 80 miles west of Brisbane, and other parts of the Lockyer Valley.

The so-called inland tsunami has been rushing toward Brisbane, a city of 2 million people, and other heavily populated coastal areas, gathering momentum in converging with the major Brisbane and Bremer Rivers. After weeks of torrential rain, officials say the region’s soil has lost its ability to absorb more water; worsening the situation, the region’s reservoirs are beginning to overflow.

Emergency management officials have predicted that up to 20,000 homes and businesses could be entirely or partially flooded in Brisbane, Queensland’s coastal capital, by the time the Brisbane River reaches its expected peak of around 20 feet above normal in the early hours of Thursday.

Officials expect that around 6,500 Brisbane homes could be completely underwater, along with some 2,100 streets. before the river begins to subside, possibly on Saturday, the city’s mayor, Campbell Newman said Wednesday.

Thousands of residents began fleeing on Tuesday, gathering whatever belongings they could carry in trailers, trucks and cars. Shoppers emptied the shelves of several supermarkets, and vehicles jammed the city’s streets late Tuesday as emergency officials urged residents not to wait until the last minute to find higher ground.

Emergency evacuation centers have been set up to accommodate nearly 10,000 people at community centers, showgrounds and stadiums in both Brisbane and in Ipswich, along the Bremer River to the west.

Aerial footage taken around midday Wednesday showed the slow-moving brown tide engulfing entire blocks of riverside Brisbane neighborhoods. Murky water lapped at the rooftops of businesses along the main street of Ipswich, where some 3,000 homes and businesses were reportedly already underwater, according to television reports.

Meanwhile, search and rescue crews began entering areas of the devastated Lockyer Valley that had been cut off by the raging torrent since late Monday. The police have repeatedly revised the number of those unaccounted for in the chaos of the past two days; on Wednesday, they put it at 60.

The Queensland State premier, Anna Bligh, said the death toll was likely to rise as emergency crews began reaching isolated communities and sifting through the debris.

“I think it’s going to be a tough and emotional day in the Lockyer Valley, as the search and rescue teams get in there for the first time,” Ms. Bligh told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. “Families who are still holding out hope, some of them are likely to have their hopes tragically crushed.”

After enduring a decade of one of the worst droughts in Australian history, Queensland residents are now facing billions of dollars in flood damage. One member of Australia’s Reserve Bank warned Wednesday that the disaster in Queensland could shave up to 1 percent off Australia’s gross domestic product.

The floods have virtually paralyzed the state’s lucrative coal and agricultural industries. Queensland produces roughly one-third of the world’s supply of coking coal, used in the production of steel. Industry analysts say global prices of coking coal and thermal coal, used to supply power plants, are sure to rise because of the flooding in Queensland.