managed to rack up a reported $54 billion deficit because of stimulus spending. swann says he wants australia to be the first economy to return to a surplus after the crisis. meantime, australia got upbeat trade news on monday. the government says the trade balance swung back into a surplus in march. exports outweighed imports by $1.74 billion. that was more than three times more than analysts have been expecting. it also would suggest that operations in queensland are getting back to normal after the devastating floods of a couple of months ago. those floods have cost australia s economy a lot more than originally thought. the government now says that losses from the weather add up to around $9.6 billion, considerably higher than earlier estimates. officials say the flooding dealt a bigger blow to queensland s coal production than first thought. they are raising damage estimates for crops lost by the cyclone in february and for lost
of thing in the united states. we re getting a lot of reports of the food and water shortages and or kinds of shortages, what kind of numbers. up to a million people are finding it difficult to find food and water for five days now. a hundred troops on the ground trying to provide emergency aid to folks and they re worried that food from japan might be contaminated in some way and you find that in hong kong, the philippines, singapore, they re testing that food and lots of worries there. up to half a million people are in emergency shelters. as you mentioned the forecasts, for freezing, near freezing and snow in the forecast so it s not going to be a pretty picture. shepard: yeah, it isn t. gerri willis from the fox business network. we ll look for you this afternoon five o clock new york time, fox business network and demanding it here no help here. and thank you. back at home in hawaii they re releasing new damage estimates from last week s tsunami that happened here and there. w
trees and roof tops, and the damage estimates are already in the billions of dollars. on the phone with me now from brisbane australia is mark jeffery, he s a reporter with global radio news. mark. yes, hello there 11,900 homes are totally inundated, another 14,800 partially flooded. that s over 27,000 homes in brisbane affected by this flood. after days of waiting and then seeing it peak about 24 hours ago the good news is the river is slowly dropping. as dawn breaks here on friday morning in brisbane, queensland our city is again waking up to face the affects of this massive onslaught of water. as two rivers converge from two valleys sending messy tpwhraod waterfloodwaters into the city s created chaos. 25,000 homes were totally cut off from the rest of the city.
yeah the figures are start to go roll in. state-wide it appears the damage estimates are hovering around 60 million dollars, but that s a number that s expected to rise as more and more of that damage is assessed. the state of emergency by the way, has been declared in 11 counties, throughout california including right here in los angeles and also down south in san diego, more than 40 homes have been severely damaged, at least 26 right there in highland, california, about 65 miles east of l.a., the damage there alone said to be around 17 million. you can see from those pictures, rivers of mud and water flowing through beautiful neighborhoods, debris scattered about and considers underwater certainly does not look pretty right now. again, those estimates at about 60 million and some context and perspective for you, jamie, that s not money that the state of california necessarily has laying around. the state is trying to shore
after days of relentless rain there and the flooding is so bad, ten counties have now issued disaster declarations. officials are putting damage estimates in the tens of millions of dollars because of all that water and they say those estimates will likely go up and now some concerns that the flooding will spread trash, pesticides and bacteria into waterways. coming up, we ll get a forecast from the weather channel. why a commemorative coin featuring prince william and kate middleton is creating a lot of buzz. congress is back in ten days after tackling quite a big to-do list before the recess. will bipartisanship last, though?