Image copyright facebook Image caption Chloe (bottom left) survived when the car sank, but her mother, brother and sister did not 
 
 A girl of eight who survived when the car she was in sank in Australia, killing three family members, has described her desperate struggle to raise the alarm. 
 
 Chloe Kabealo said she had unbuckled her seatbelt and tried to "go up for air", then "just kept floating up out". 
 
 She said of her lost family members: "They were all loved and they'll never be forgotten." 
 
 Her father, who was not in the car, said he was "shattered" by the loss. 
 
 "I'm not holding up," Matt Kabealo said. "I'm just being strong for my daughter." 
 
 Chloe and her mother, sister and brother were in a car in the small town of Tumbulgum in New South Wales when it slid off a muddy road into a flooded river earlier this month. 
 
 Chloe escaped and ran to a farmhouse to raise the alarm. 
 
 Stephanie King, 43, died trying to save her children. 
 
 Local police superintendent Wayne Starling told reporters from 7 News at the time: "The mother was trying to get one of her children out of the car when she passed away. 
 
 "She was with the child, holding the child. I have no doubt she would still be alive if she wasn't trying to save her children." 
 
 Ella Jane, 11, and seven-year-old Jacob also died. 
 
 Chloe and Mr Kabealo were speaking at an event raising funds for them. So far efforts have gathered tens of thousands of Australian dollars. 
 
 "Anything we can do to make their lives a little bit better, we'll try anything we can," local policeman Constable Brad Foster told 7 News. 
 
 In March last year, a four-month old baby was the sole survivor when a car sank off the coast of Donegal in the Republic Ireland. 
 
 Advice for escaping a sinking car 
 
 If a car you are in starts to sink, get out as fast as possible. Do not phone for help or try to retrieve possessions. There is very little time. 
 
 Open the windows straightaway before contact with water makes the electric system fail or water pressure stops you winding the windows down. 
 
 If that doesn't work, get the door open, undo your seatbelt and get out. 
 
 The third option, in last resort, is to pull a headrest out and use the metal part of it to hit the window, hard, in the corner and hopefully break it open. 
 
 If you are underwater when you leave the car, push away from it, and if you don't know for sure which way is up, check what direction bubbles are floating in and swim that way. 
 
 sources: Popular Mechanics, The Art of Manliness and Top Gear ||||| McErlean, 
 
 Tyson said he was heartbroken but proud of his son. "I can only imagine what was going on inside to give up his life to save his brother, even though he was petrified of water. He is our little hero."Rice is being hailed as a hero today after he gave up his life for his younger brother Blake, 10, when his family's car got caught in the floodwaters that have so far killed at least 15 people and left 70 others missing.Warrena passerby who tried desperately to save the family when their white Mercedes began to flood Monday, said he was in awe of Jordan's courage but devastated that he could not rescue the boy or his mother. In an emotional interview, McErlean said he and two others who stopped to help the family were using rope to pull 43-year-old Donna Rice and her two sons to safety when Jordan told them to save his brother and mother first.McErlean said the youngster helped rescuers lift Blake out of the flood waters, then begged them to take his mother next as the rushing waters became stronger."Jordan grabbed [Blake] and helped him onto the car. ... Jordan was getting up but he wouldn't go. He couldn't swim. But he helped his mom onto this guy's back ... the current was so strong," McErlean told Australia's 2UE954 Radio , his voice breaking. ||||| Police say raft on Thunder River Rapids ride flipped over on conveyor belt seconds from end of journey 
 
 Two children who were in the accident at the Dreamworld theme park that killed four adults had a “miracle” escape, Queensland police said on Wednesday. 
 
 The ride on the Thunder River Rapids at the Gold Coast theme park flipped as it was travelling on a conveyor belt at the end of the water-based ride about 2pm on Tuesday. Two adults became trapped under the six-person raft and two were caught in the conveyor belt. 
 
 Dreamworld tragedy victims remembered as 'wonderful people' Read more 
 
 They have been identified as brother and sister Luke Dorsett, 35 and Kate Goodchild, 32, and Dorsett’s partner, Roozi Araghi, 38. All three are from Canberra. 
 
 The fourth woman is Cindy Low, 42, originally from Kawerau in the Bay of Plenty in New Zealand, who lived in Sydney with her family. Fairfax Media reported she was on the raft with her 10-year-old son while her partner and daughter were in another raft. 
 
 A statement issued on behalf of Low’s partner, Mathew, said the Low family was “devastated by the tragic loss”. 
 
 “The family are traumatised, and kindly request that their privacy be respected as they try to come to terms with this tragic loss,” the statement said, adding they would not make any further statements “in this time of intense grief”. 
 
 The other child in the raft was a 12-year-old girl, understood to be Goodchild’s daughter. Both children were physically unharmed but were traumatised and are in hospital and have been offered counselling. 
 
 Brian Codd, acting police commissioner for Queensland’s south-east region, said: “Maybe through the providence of God or somebody, but it seems from what I’ve seen almost a miracle that anybody came out of that,” he said. “If we’re going to be thankful for anything, I’m thankful for that.” 
 
 
 
 graphic graphic 
 
 Codd said the raft, or “flume”, which looks like six chairs arranged in a circle on a giant inner tube, “turned over and flipped, resulting in it falling back on top of those persons and those persons being variously caught in machinery”. 
 
 “One [raft] has flipped backwards and it has caught and tossed some of the people that were on the ride backwards on the conveyor belt,” he said. 
 
 
 
 He declined to go into any more detail but said the scene was so traumatic that it had a “deep and emotional effect” on police and paramedics. . 
 
 “I guess the fortunate thing here is that the two children managed to escape that disaster … Unfortunately, the four adults did not,” Codd said. 
 
 Goodchild had two daughters, aged eight months and 12 years. Her mother, Kim Dorsett, told the Courier-Mail that Goodchild’s oldest daughter was blaming herself. “She has had a truly terrible day. She is going through unimaginable pain at the moment,” she said. 
 
 Dorsett said she was devastated that her youngest grandchild would never know her mother. “I have three children and have lost two of them today – my whole family has been wiped out,” she said. 
 
 Codd said police had become used to dealing with tragedies such as fatal road accidents “but coming to a place where families want to come and enjoy each other’s company and just have fun doesn’t really equate to such a tragedy as we’ve seen”. 
 
 He added: “Many of our officers have families. I don’t think there’s any of our officers who haven’t [been affected by] aspects of what’s happened here. 
 
 “We owe it to the deceased and their families, we owe it to the community of Queensland, to get to the bottom of what caused this, to hold accountable any person that needs to be held accountable for this occurring, if that is the case, but most particularly ensuring that this can never happen again.” 
 
 The ride, which sends passengers around a 410-metre course of artificial rapids, was one of the oldest and most beloved in the park. It opened in 1986 and was described as one of the park’s family rides, offering a “moderate thrill” suitable for children as young as two. 
 
 The water was drained as part of rescue efforts on Tuesday. 
 
 Codd said he was aware of reports suggesting concerns had been raised about the ride in the past and said all such reports would be examined as part of the coronial investigation. 
 
 Engineers were scheduled to examine the mechanism, including the conveyor belt, on Wednesday, and investigators would also check the maintenance schedule and see whether the park had complied with its own policies. 
 
 “These types of investigations are not quick,” he said. “They take a lot of time and, unfortunately, some of that time might not be at a speed that keeps up with the media cycle. 
 
 “But I hope that you can understand that, for us, the importance is not speed, but thoroughness. It is absolutely vital that we get to the bottom of all aspects of this very, very complex tragedy.” 
 
 Some parkgoers said the ride had broken down twice earlier in the day. 
 
 Police have asked anyone who was on the ride when the tragedy occurred or earlier that day to send in any footage or photos they may have taken. 
 
 Detective Inspector Mark Thompson told reporters on the Gold Coast on Thursday that would not go into details about the investigation, saying it was “inappropriate ... when it comes to the ride or its structure or other issues surrounding the ride itself.” 
 
 But also would not say how long the theme park would remain closed, adding: “the gathering of scientific evidence will be lengthy and detailed and it would be wrong for me to speculate.” 
 
 Reports that Goodchild’s partner was robbed as he tried to assist her were false, he said. 
 
 The Queensland premier, Annastacia Palaszczuk, said the tragedy had deeply affected the Gold Coast community. “There’s been thousands, thousands of families that have been on that ride,” she told ABC’s AM. “My own family, we went on that ride ourselves just earlier this year.” 
 
 Palaszczuk said claims by the Australian Workers’ Union that it had raised concerns about the safety and maintenance of rides at the park on behalf of staff last year would be investigated. 
 
 “We need to get to the bottom of this, honestly. We need to make sure that no stone is left unturned because this is an awful, awful tragedy and we want to ensure that this never happens again,” she said. 
 
 Flowers began arriving at the site on Wednesday and Lifeline has set up a dedicated support line for people affected by the tragedy. ||||| Clive Palmer, the billionaire owner of mining company Mineralogy, initially ordered the helicopter to go to the aid of three staff members who were stuck on the roof of his horse stud farm in Kilcoy, 70 miles northwest of Brisbane. 
 
 The remote property was inundated by flash floods and the emergency services had not yet responded to calls for help. 
 
 The group had been unable to escape when a wall of water hit the property and were in danger of being swept away, he said. 
 
 "An extra metre and it would have got them. They were very lucky - they should have got a quicker response," he told the Courier Mail newspaper. "The important lesson is we need fast reaction times and not slow ones." 
 
 Mr Palmer said the group had called the emergency services, but 12 hours later when they had still not arrived, he decided to act. 
 
 "I made the call at four in the morning to get our guys in because we were worried they'd drown," he said. 
 
 On the way back from picking up the employees, the helicopter passed over another 16 people, including several children, stranded on the roof of a local school. 
 
 "They'd been waiting for a day for an evacuation too, so our chopper went back and shuttled them all off," Mr Palmer said. 
 
 By the end of the crisis, the helicopter had saved 60 people, employees said. 
 
 Murray Sullivan, who was plucked from the roof of the horse stud, said he owed his life to Mr Palmer. 
 
 "I will never, ever forget what Clive did for me," he told racing website harnesslink.com. 
 
 "I will definitely be returning to work for him but for now I can't face what is there. The water has subsided but the thought of cleaning up the carcasses of horses I loved so much would be too much for me to take right now." 
 
 Mr Palmer said he had lost around $1.8 million of farm equipment and about 20 horses had drowned in the flash flood.
– With floodwaters starting to recede, the toll in Australia is at 25 and expected to climb given the dozens of people still missing, reports the AP. As the state's premier put it: "Queensland is reeling this morning from the worst natural disaster in our history and possibly in the history of our nation. We face a reconstruction task of postwar proportions." As the nation assesses the damage, tales of daring rescues and heroism are emerging: In Toowoomba, 13-year-old Jordan Rice is being hailed as a hero for asking rescuers to get his brother to safety first. By the time they returned to the family's submerged car, it was too late to save Jordan and his mother, reports AOL News, which rounds up local coverage. Click for more on Jordan. When a helicopter owned by mining magnate Clive Palmer set out to rescue three employees near Brisbane, it noticed scores of other people trapped on roofs. It went back, again and again, and ended up saving 60 people, reports the Telegraph. A reddit.com photo popular on BuzzFeed shows a man carrying a small kangaroo to safety. Click for image.