At least four people are dead after flash floods hit Toowoomba and the nearby Lockyer Valley, with more of the same expected within hours.
Police told AAP four people were confirmed dead after tsunami-like walls of water hit the city of Toowoomba and nearby valley communities, west of Brisbane.
The four are believed to include a mother and child who could not be saved when metres of water swept away their car in the heart of Toowoomba.
Two other people were found dead at Murphys Creek, in the Lockyer Valley at the bottom of the Toowoomba range, police told AAP.
It's feared several more people may have died after the disaster hit about 1.30pm (AEST) on Monday, with the ABC reporting seven people were believed to have died and several more were unaccounted for.
Inspector Douglas McDonald told the ABC three people were trapped in a car in Toowoomba, but nothing could be done to save a woman and child.
"Only one of those persons was able to be rescued before the vehicle and the other persons were swept away," he said.
Their bodies were recovered near the CBD, hundreds of metres from where they were caught up in the flood waters, the ABC reported.
The flash flooding has torn up roads, damaged buildings, swept cars down city streets and into waterways, and washed homes from their foundations.
The ferocity of the floods stretched emergency services beyond the limit, with 90 life-threatening incidents reported around 1.30pm.
Rescue missions continued on Monday night, as crews tried to reach submerged vehicles, and people were trapped in buildings and on rooftops.
On Monday night, police expanded an evacuation alert for the area, as authorities warned of more flash flooding in the Lockyer Valley by about midnight (AEST).
Police said all low-lying residents to the east, south and west of Toowoomba must get to higher ground immediately, along with low-lying residents in the Lockyer Valley.
The Department of Community Safety, in an alert to Lockyer Valley residents, warned they remained in danger.
"This is a flash flood warning from the SES. Significant heavy rainfall is expected in the next four hours," it said.
Toowoomba Mayor Peter Taylor said there was still no clear picture of the damage but it was enormous.
"There has been loss of life. I don't know how many at this point ..." he told the ABC.
"There is massive damage ... this is unbelievable damage."
A Toowoomba resident told of watching part of a bridge float by the city's library.
In the valley, up to 5000 residents in low-lying areas along the Lockyer Creek have been told to abandon their homes, including at Gatton, Laidley and Forest Hill.
"It could be four or five thousand people," Lockyer Valley Regional Council Mayor Steve Jones told AAP.
"It's very severe, it's a very, very big concern. It could be as big as (the) 1974 (floods)."
The Lockyer Creek was at a record 18.92 metres at the valley town of Gatton at 6.30pm (AEST). The previous record was 16.33 in 1893.
The Bureau of Meteorology does not know how much further it will rise, saying only that "severe record major flooding" is expected in areas downstream of Gatton overnight and on Tuesday.
Mr Taylor said Toowoomba residents were in shock from a disaster sparked by 36 hours of heavy rain into an already saturated catchment.
Mr Jones said valley communities had also been devastated, with houses swept from their stumps at Postmans Ridge and Grantham.
A man who has relatives in Grantham said there were many people trapped on house roofs there and he was praying they were okay.
"One of the houses ... actually lifted and floated away," the man, identified only as Andrew, told the ABC.
The valley town of Withcott was also hit hard, with a surge of water tearing petrol bowers from a service station and dumping them half a kilometre away, and sweeping cars into shop fronts.
Across Queensland, the multi-billion dollar flood crisis, now almost a month old, is escalating.
People in flood-prone areas on the Sunshine Coast, and at Esk between the coast and Toowoomba, were also told to evacuate on Monday night.
Floodwaters are continuing to rise in the southeast Queensland city of Gympie, where the Mary River is expected to peak at about 20 metres overnight.
More than 110 homes and businesses are expected to flood at that level, Queensland Premier Anna Bligh told reporters earlier on Monday.
At Dalby, west of Brisbane, residents are preparing for a fifth flood event in three weeks, with between 200 and 300 homes expected to go under there, Ms Bligh said.
The Myall Creek was expected to peak on Monday evening at a level higher than the December 27 peak, when 100 properties were flooded.
Western Downs Mayor Ray Brown said there was "huge emotion" in the town after five significant water events through Dalby in the last three weeks.
Brisbane residents too have been warned they're not immune from the unrelenting tide, with people told homes and businesses could flood in coming days despite critical protection afforded by the Wivenhoe dam west of the city.
Ms Bligh said the dam, built after the 1974 floods devastated thousands of Brisbane and Ipswich homes, was seeing "massive inflows" to rival that disaster.
"We are seeing one million megalitres or two Sydney harbours flow into the Wivenhoe catchment every day," she told reporters.
"Without a doubt the Wivenhoe Dam has already saved Brisbane from a catastrophic flood in the next 48 hours but we have to keep releasing water from it so it can keep doing the job it's doing."
Brisbane City Council has ordered 30,000 sandbags, which will be filled and available for distribution from council depots.
Meanwhile, evacuations are under way in the southern Queensland town of Warwick, as the Condamine River continues to cause trouble.
And residents in low-lying parts of the Darling Downs town of Chinchilla, northwest of Toowoomba, are also moving out of their homes.
Mr Brown told AAP 140mm of rain fell in just one hour into Charleys Creek which runs through Chinchilla.
"We know Charleys Creek had risen 1.6m in an hour," he said.
Large parts of the town, which services agriculture and mining industries, were flooded on December 27.
Nearby Condamine, which was totally evacuated at the height of its recent flood emergency, received 100mm in an hour.
Front page
RSS Feed