QUEENSLAND is bracing for a second round of widespread and damaging flooding, with heavy rainfall over the state's south expected to continue for the next two days.
Following a weekend downpour, the coastal towns of Gympie and Maryborough on the Mary River, 250km north of Brisbane, became the latest communities beset by floodwaters yesterday.
Acting Gympie Regional Mayor Tony Perrett says businesses just off Mary St have already been inundated, and up to 40 in the CBD could follow. About 40 houses could also be inundated if the 20-metre peak eventuates, he said.
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The Bureau of Meteorology said the river at Gympie was expected to rise beyond the major flood level of 17 metres this morning, reaching up to 20 metres overnight into tomorrow.
Further south, more than 200mm of rain is expected over southeast Queensland and the Darling Downs today and tomorrow, and authorities are concerned the forecast deluge will cause the Condamine River system to swell further.
If this happens, it is likely that the Darling Downs towns of Dalby and Chinchilla - which experienced bad flooding just two weeks ago - could be swamped again. Authorities in Dalby reopened their evacuation centre and emergency crews are moving residents out ahead of more flash flooding this morning.
And last night Brisbane was also hit by flash flooding with police officers were forced to wade out of a stranded police car, the Courier-Mail reported. The Bruce Highway north of Brisbane was cut last night and almost 3000 homes were left without power.
The Queensland border town of Goondiwindi was also preparing for flooding last night.
Also last night, the Flood Relief Appeal Australia Unites raised $10 million as Australians pledged to help. The support was so huge there were more than 12,000 calls within the first minute, crashing the phone system.
Financial support for flood victims
Prime Minister Julia Gillard has announced income assistance payments of about $500 a fortnight to workers affected by floods.
"This measure is to assist people who are not able to do their normal income-earning work and get their normal income," Ms Gillard said in Canberra today.
As an example, she said the disaster income recovery subsidy would apply to a truck driver at a mine, which had been closed because of the floods, or similarly to a cafe worker. Farmers who were unable to deliver their harvests because of cut off roads would also be able to apply.
A similar subsidy, which is valid for a 13-week period, was offered by the Federal Government in the aftermath of Cyclone Larry and the Black Saturday bushfires in Victoria.
The payments will be available in 150 local government areas across Queensland, NSW, Victoria, South Australia and Western Australia.
Ms Gillard said the subsidy was in addition to significant assistance already available to the flood-affected.
Emergency money loans of $1000 per adult in Queensland had seen some 8000 claims lodged so far, and $10 million has already been paid.
Disaster claims another life
The natural disaster claimed another victim yesterday when a young woman drowned in a flooded creek at the Cherbourg Aboriginal community, inland from Gympie. The woman, in her 20s, was the 11th person to die as a result of the state's floods in the past fortnight.
And a plane carrying Queensland Premier Anna Bligh and the head of the government's Reconstruction Task Force, Major General Mick Slater, was hit by lightning yesterday afternoon after they had visited the flood-affected town of Theodore.
Queensland is now facing floods on three fronts - the cities of Bundaberg and Rockhampton, where peak floodwaters are falling only slightly; southern Queensland centred on Maryborough, where flooding has only just started; and western Queensland, where floodwaters peaked in St George at the weekend after previously peaking further upstream in Chinchilla and Dalby.
A major concern now is that the ground is so waterlogged the heavy rains are unable to be absorbed and full watercourses are bursting their banks.
The rains have also spread over the New South Wales border, with the Richmond River at Kyogle measured at 4.6m and still rising, while Lismore is among the larger towns in the firing line of the Wilsons River.
The Brunswick River, which runs through Mullumbimby, is also liable to burst its banks, according to the weather bureau.
The acting Deputy Chief Officer of Emergency Management Queensland, Warren Bridson, said the state was still under serious threat.
"This year, with all of the catchments primed (and) the rivers already flooding, the (forecast) 200mm of rain over the next 48 hours . . . could mean the difference between a minor flood and a major flood."
