A body was found in floodwaters caused by the deluge of Cyclone Debbie as it devastates Queensland and northern NSW.

Police would not confirm if the grim discovery in South Murwillumbah, on the Tweed River, was related to the floods the engulfed the town.

The area is so waterlogged that police can't even access the body to find out how the victim died or identify them.

Officers said they had only received reports of the body and not actually seen it themselves, but would try to get to it with rescue boats when the waters cleared.

The cyclone flooding has already exceeded the destruction of historic 1954 and 1974 floods in northern NSW.

There were fears more people would die as tens of thousands of residents were ordered to evacuate and 140,000 Queenslanders remained without power.

Northern New South Wales towns Lismore and Tweed were declared natural disaster zones on Friday after about 20,000 residents were forced to abandon homes and properties overnight.

Authorities were unsure how many people were awaiting rescue as some may not have had access to phones.

Queensland Police Commissioner Ian Stewart said efforts were continuing in Lamington National Park to find a bushwalker missing since Wednesday.

Flooding at Murwillumbah in northern NSW was deeper than the 1954 floods by Friday morning and is expected to exceed the 1974 floods by the early afternoon, Bureau of Meteorology said.

MULWILLUMBAH DRENCHED WITH MORE THAN 400MM OF RAIN

Up to 423 millimetres of rain fell in Murwillumbah within 24 hours, Bureau of Meteorology said on Thursday.

In parts of the northern rivers, 780mm fell within 48 hours in the aftermath of Cyclone Debbie.

An exhausted horse to shelter in the doorway of a home at Murwillumbah on Friday, according to a heartbreaking photo shared on Facebook.

'She is completely exhausted and we have spoken with the vet,' the daughter of the horse' s wrote in a comment on the post.

Homes and business are underwater in Lismore on Friday as potentially deadly conditions continue.

Sirens in the northern NSW town are warning residents to head to higher ground or get on their roofs after floodwater topped the protective levee.

Three metres of water is expected to drown the town and exceed floods seen in 2001 and 2005, NSW SES Deputy Commissioner Mark Morrow said.

Some of those who called for help overnight couldn't be reached, with the possibility of the 'distressing news' of deaths to come, he said.

'There could be people overnight that perished in that flood, we don't know at this stage,' he told ABC television on Friday morning.

'We expect this morning that as we start to go out and try to find people that made those calls overnight, there could be some very distressing news.'

Lismore's city's siren was activated at 4.15am on Friday warning residents to leave immediately.

'It's the first time it's been activated in 12 years,' Lismore mayor Isaac Smith told AAP on Friday.

Floodwaters topped the 10.6 metre level at 4.15am on Friday, with water levels predicted to reach 11.5 metres later in the day, Mr Smith said.

The SES is predicting the situation could worsen during the day with a high tide due at 1pm.

The wind is expected to pick up on Friday, compounding the dangers.

'We'll start to see trees coming down, potentially powerlines,' Mr Morrow said.

'That's the back-end associated with that cyclone in Queensland.

'We're far from out of this and I think the recovery efforts that are going to have to occur are going to be significant.'

The Lismore mayor said people had been caught off guard, and the city is in uncharted territory.

Mr Smith said the city's protective levee had never failed Lismore before.

'It's never happened, 12 years now the levee's stood there and kept out major and minor floods,' he said.

'A lot of people here are just a bit concerned about how it's going to go, but we honestly don't know,' he told ABC TV on Friday.

Mr Morrow said floodwaters would reach the roof of homes or even higher.

'A lot of people that are going to be displaced from their businesses or their homes.'

'About 130 flood rescues, people in cars, people trapped on roofs of houses. We'll get out there as soon as we can in daylight with aerial assets as well, helicopters and we'll try and find those people that made calls to us last night and help them this morning.'

He said about 6,000 people had left their homes.

Residents in the flood zone caused by ex-tropical cyclone Debbie have spent the night holed up in evacuation centres, as the system tracked south past Brisbane and into northern NSW.

River levels in some threatened communities were continuing to rise, even on a low tide, when they should be starting to drop.

'In some places further to the north, like Chinderah up around Tweed Heads where the water should be falling on a low tide now it's actually increasing. That's not a good sign for today.'

He said 13 evacuation orders remained current, affecting about 25,000 people in northern NSW towns.

People in Tweed Heads South and West, Chinderah, Kingscliff, Fingal Head and Bilambil have been told to leave.

Closer to the Queensland border, residents in 500 homes in the South Murwillumbah, Condong and Tumbulgum areas were also ordered to evacuate, with the Tweed River experiencing major flooding.

Authorities have lamented those ignoring advice and driving through floodwaters.

SES spokesman Brent Hunter those people were 'playing Russian roulette with their lives', Daily Telegraph reported.

A 'WALL OF WATER' HEADS FOR THE GOLD COAST

Gold Coast residents have been warned to prepare as wind gusts up to 100km/h are expected to lash the region this afternoon.

Meanwhile, residents of low-lying parts of Logan and the Gold Coast have been told to move to higher ground as a 'wall of water' heads towards the region.

The Gold Coast council has told residents near the northern suburbs of Stapylton and Jacobs Well to evacuate, and warned those who remain behind they risk being trapped by floodwaters for several days.

Police Commissioner Ian Stewart said people in the area should get out now.

'Floodwaters are approaching, and they are putting out SMS alerts to people in those areas, asking people to go to higher ground, to evacuate to friends and family,' he said.

'They are urgent alerts and we have asked the community to take them seriously.

Residents in low-lying areas around Beenleigh have also been told to get out as the Albert River continues to rise towards a possible 130-year record level.

The Bureau of Meteorology says the river level may reach around 8.0 metres in the areas on Friday afternoon, near the 8.1 metre record level set in 1887.

Logan Mayor Luke Smith told the Courier Mail a 'wall of water' was heading for the area from the Scenic Rim region.

'We're in for a significant inundation of major flooding. It's just about waiting to see where all the water happens to go.'

Floodwaters are expected to peak around midday today in both areas.

Bureau of Meteorology regional director Bruce Gunn said rainfall totals across the southeast had been extraordinary, with falls of more than 800mm in the Gold Coast hinterland in 48 hours.

The Beaudesert area has already been beset by record floodwaters after being pounded by heavy rain from ex-cyclone Debbie.

BOM has also warned of possible minor flooding along the Brisbane River at the Brisbane CBD overnight on Friday and on Saturday.

There are also concerns about possible flooding in Rockhampton next week as water makes its way down from rivers upstream.

AUTHORITIES HIT OUT AT 'FOOLISH' BEHAVIOUR DURING FLOODING

Meanwhile, State Disaster Coordinator Stephan Gollschewski has hit out at 'foolish and quite stupid behaviour' from some during the floods

In one case a man was charged with drink-driving after driving into flood waters with his partner and two young children west of Brisbane.

And on Thursday a boy was swept away after tying his boogie board to a bridge so he could surf a torrent of water coming down a creek. He was lucky to survive and managed to swim to safety.

All schools in southeast Queensland remain closed for the second consecutive day but the worst of the weather has passed over the Brisbane area, where the sun has come out.

Meanwhile, Mr Gollschewski said the focus in north Queensland, where Cyclone Debbie crossed the coast as a category four storm on Tuesday, had switched to restoring essential services such as communication and power networks, to aid the recovery effort there.

Queensland Fire and Emergency Services Commissioner Katarina Carroll said the SES had dealt with about 5600 calls for help since the cyclone disaster began earlier this week.

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said around 140,000 households were without powers across the southeast and north Queensland.

More than 90,000 homes are currently without power in the southeast and a further 50,000 in the Bowen, Mackay and Whitsunday regions.

Some will be without power for days.

She said 630 power lines were affected by Thursday's extreme weather in Queensland's southeast.

The police commissioner also said efforts were continuing in the Lamington National Park, near the Queensland-NSW border, to find a bushwalker missing since Wednesday.

'He remains unaccounted for. You can just imagine what the conditions are like are there ... It would be a very treacherous situation,' Mr Stewart said.

Queensland Fire and Emergency Services Deputy Commissioner Mike Wassing said the state's flood emergency wasn't over, particularly for communities near the NSW border.

'Our greatest area of concern this morning for people living in the areas of Beenleigh, Waterford, Woodend and Beaudesert,' he told ABC television.

'We currently got major flood warnings for the Albert River and the Logan River.'

He described the situation as 'very serious'.

'It is very serious, it's a major flood warning. If you're in low-lying areas, safely move to high grounds.'

Swift water rescue firefighters had saved the lives of 85 people trapped in floodwaters.

Mr Wassing confirmed there had been 'a number of rescues and continue to have as we speak'.

At 1am Friday, Queensland police urged residents of Beaudesert in southeast Queensland to warn neighbours, secure belongings and move to higher ground as it was hit by record flooding and the Logan River continued to rise.

Nine News reported some in Beaudesert had to seek refuge on the roof of their cars as the waters rose.

The Logan River in the town was at 13.91 metres early Friday morning, equivalent to the level seen in the town's record 1991 flood and the river is not expected to peak until 7am (AEST).

Weatherzone meteorologist Brett Dutshke told Daily Mail Australia Lismore and other areas have been hit with the most rain since the floods of 1974.

There is very little rain expected to come but emergency services are warning the danger is not over.

Cattle farmers have had massive livestock losses in central Queensland,

'Beef producers in the Clarke Creek and Lotus Creek region on the old highway between Mackay and Rockhampton were particularly hard hit with a metre of rain falling in just over 24 hours,' AgForce CEO Charles Burke said.

He said farmers were still assessing the damage.

'Farming families in the region have never seen water levels like it, and we've had reports of cattle and horses being washed away, families sitting on kitchen tables to stay safe and major damage to sheds and other structures, while all the local bridges and crossings have been completely smashed.

'It's extremely difficult to get in touch with producers in all the different affected areas with many properties isolated by floodwaters, power supplies cut and phone lines still down.'

The first guests have been evacuated from the Whitsunday islands resorts smashed by Cyclone Debbie but thousands remain stranded on Hamilton Island.

Daydream Island is expected to be closed for a month as further assessments of the extensive damage continue.

All guests and more than 100 staff have been evacuated from Daydream after the category four storm belted the region but many more remain stuck at other resorts.

The Australian Defence Force delivered food, fuel and water to Daydream Island earlier on Thursday, while local ferries were organised to shuttle guests back to the mainland.

The 3,000 people stranded on nearby Hamilton Island, which was lashed with the strongest recorded winds on Thursday at 263 km/h, face a longer wait to reach the mainland.

Twelve flights have been scheduled between Hamilton Island and Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne.

Checking in could take up to 25 minutes per passenger, a statement on the Hamilton Island website said.

'We have been advised airlines will be bringing up large volumes of staff to assist with this process,' the statement said.

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and Opposition Leader Bill Shorten visited Bowen in the Whitsunday region on Thursday morning, making financial aid available immediately to the local council to start rebuilding infrastructure.

A emergency services source told AAP South Molle Island, to the northwest of Hamilton Island, had been 'totally devastated' but no one was there when Debbie struck.

Nearby Hayman Island has also suffered significant damage preventing emergency services personnel landing on Wednesday.

Ms Palaszczuk is standing by her last-minute decision to close southeast Queensland schools on Thursday.

The premier made the call to shut schools from Agnes Water to the Queensland border early on Thursday morning, and Deputy Premier Jackie Trad announced the move on live television after 7am.

But parents did not receive a text message notifying them of the closure until around 10am, after school was already due to have started.

Ms Palaszczuk has previously apologised for the inconvenience but on Friday defended the timing, saying she made the decision to close schools as soon as she learnt that ex-Cyclone Debbie would bring even worst torrential rain and flooding than initially expected.

'We were expecting between 100mm-200mm of rain,' Ms Palaszczuk said.

'When the (weather) bureau met first thing that morning, they saw there was going to be a whole lot more rain coming into the southeast corner as well as those thunderstorms and the high wind gusts.

'So as soon as the bureau alerted the authorities, that decision was made.'

She said she did not want to put children's lives at risk. </s> Major floods have hit the New South Wales far north coast, with tens of thousands of people evacuating Murwillumbah and Lismore, the main areas hit.

Photos have revealed the devastation as waters continue to rise in the wake of ex-cyclone Debbie, with flooding also wreaking havoc further north in Queensland. </s> A second woman’s body was found Friday and tens of thousands of people were evacuated from towns in two Australian states after torrential rain caused by a powerful tropical cyclone.

Category four Cyclone Debbie hit northeastern Australia on Tuesday between Bowen and Airlie Beach in Queensland state, ripping up trees, washing boats onto land and causing widespread damage.

Debbie was downgraded to a tropical low as it tracked southeast, but continued to pack damaging gusts and dump huge amounts of rain all the way down the east coast to New South Wales state, south of Queensland, and Sydney.

NSW Police said the body of a woman who “disappeared in floodwaters overnight from a rural property” near Murwillumbah just south of the Queensland border was found on Friday.

The body of a 64-year-old woman, whose vehicle was swept off a causeway on a property in Gungal, about 300 kilometres (190 miles) north of Sydney, on Thursday night, was recovered Friday.

The woman’s 74-year-old husband, who was also in the vehicle, managed to get out.

Lismore, south of Murwillumbah near the NSW coast was hard hit, with the State Emergency Service (SES) warning of three-metre (10-feet) high flood levels in the town.

Earlier Friday, SES acting deputy commissioner Mark Morrow said he had fears for some missing residents from Lismore.

“As we start to go out and try to find people that made… calls overnight, there could be some very distressing news,” he told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

“There could be people overnight that perished in that flood, we don’t know at this stage.”

Other towns subject to evacuation orders include Tweed Heads, Kingscliff and Murwillumbah.

Farmer Peter Hannigan, whose property is just north of Lismore, said the deluge was the worst he had ever seen in more than 50 years in the area.

“I think a lot of people are going to have a lot of significant damage on the farms,” he told the ABC.

“It is the worst I have ever seen I have to admit.”

Further north in Queensland, the popular tourist city of Gold Coast and other nearby regions were also inundated by water. Upper Springbrook in the Gold Coast hinterland recorded 789 millimetres (31 inches) of water on Thursday, the Bureau of Meteorology said.

The weather bureau’s regional director Bruce Gunn said that across southeast Queensland, where Gold Coast is located, there had been widespread rainfall of 100-300 mm over the last two days.

“In terms of what happened in the last 24 or 48 hours, we have seen some pretty big rainfall totals,” he told Brisbane’s Courier Mail.

“There is still that strong risk around the Gold Coast.”

Focus has turned to the restoration of essential services such as water and electricity in the areas hit by Debbie, including Bowen, Mackay and the Whitsunday islands where some 50,000 people were still without power, officials said.

The military has mobilised 1,300 soldiers to help assess the full extent of damage and aid the clean-up, with helicopters and planes deploying to restore infrastructure and supply emergency food, water and fuel. </s> SYDNEY: A third body has been found in the aftermath of Cyclone Debbie and accompanying floods that swamped Australia’s east coast, as receding waters start revealing the human and economic cost of the storm.

The disaster zone stretched 1,000 km (600 miles) from Queensland state's tropical resort islands and Gold Coast tourist strip to the farmlands of New South Wales state.

The body of 77-year-old Nelson Raebel was found in floodwaters in the state of Queensland on Saturday afternoon, Queensland Police said, bringing the national death toll to three since the cyclone hit on Tuesday.

Authorities are still searching for another three people that remain missing in flood-hit areas of Queensland.

Evacuation orders are still in place for a number townships in northern New South Wales, but authorities said on Sunday the flood threat was receding.

“There are still a number of communities subject to evacuation orders and in some instance people have remained in their properties and that’s causing us the biggest challenge at the moment,” Mark Morrow of the NSW State Emergency Service told Channel 9.

Several large rivers that had reached major flood levels were falling, the Australian Bureau of Meteorology said on Sunday. But the city of Rockhampton in Queensland state is bracing for record-level flooding next week.

Cyclone Debbie, a category four storm, one short of the most powerful level five, pounded Queensland state on Tuesday, smashing tourist resorts, bringing down power lines and shutting down coal mines.

Australia’s Defence Force was deployed to help deliver medical personnel and supplies to communities in the north of the state.

Debbie will hit Australia's AUS$1.7 trillion (1.03 trillion pounds) economy, with economists estimating it will slow growth to under 2 percent in the first quarter.

Photos taken by emergency services in the town of Lismore, in New South Wales, show businesses in the town centre inundated with brown water.

The Insurance Council of Australia has declared the event a catastrophe. </s> A third body has been found in the aftermath of Cyclone Debbie and accompanying floods that swamped Australia’s east coast, as receding waters start revealing the human and economic cost of the storm. The disaster zone stretched 1,000 km (600 miles) from Queensland state’s tropical resort islands and Gold Coast tourist strip to the farmlands of New South Wales state.

The body of 77-year-old Nelson Raebel was found in floodwaters in the state of Queensland on Saturday afternoon, Queensland Police said, bringing the national death toll to three since the cyclone hit on Tuesday.

Authorities are still searching for another three people that remain missing in flood-hit areas of Queensland.

 Evacuation orders are still in place for a number townships in northern New South Wales, but authorities said on Sunday the flood threat was receding.

“There are still a number of communities subject to evacuation orders and in some instance people have remained in their properties and that’s causing us the biggest challenge at the moment,” Mark Morrow of the NSW State Emergency Service told Channel 9.

Several large rivers that had reached major flood levels were falling, the Australian Bureau of Meteorology said on Sunday. But the city of Rockhampton in Queensland state is bracing for record-level flooding next week.

Cyclone Debbie, a category four storm, one short of the most powerful level five, pounded Queensland state on Tuesday, smashing tourist resorts, bringing down power lines and shutting down coal mines.

Australia’s Defence Force was deployed to help deliver medical personnel and supplies to communities in the north of the state.

 Debbie will hit Australia’s A$1.7 trillion ($1.3 trillion) economy, with economists estimating it will slow growth to under 2 percent in the first quarter.

Photos taken by emergency services in the town of Lismore, in New South Wales, show businesses in the town centre inundated with brown water.

The Insurance Council of Australia has declared the event a catastrophe.

For all the latest World News, download Indian Express App now </s> Swollen rivers flooded entire towns along Australia’s east coast Friday, cutting roads and leaving residents clinging to roofs and floating down streets in boats after the remnants of a powerful cyclone swept through the region.

Flood sirens sounded before dawn at Lismore when the Wilsons River surged over the town’s levee. By daybreak the center of the town of 25,000 people in the Northern Rivers region of the state of New South Wales (NSW) was underwater.

Water was at roof level and cars, trash bins and other debris washed down streets, as residents fled and farmers drove their cattle to higher ground.

“We have everything happening, we’ve got people on rooftops, we’ve had people stuck in vans, it’s a disaster, an utter disaster,” NSW State Emergency Services Controller Ian Leckie told Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) radio.

The aftermath of Cyclone Debbie, which pounded Queensland state Tuesday, smashing tourist resorts, bringing down power lines and shutting down coal mines, has become a huge rain depression.

No deaths were reported so far from the storm, but there are still fears that fatalities may emerge after emergency workers logged more than 100 flood rescues during the night. Gales and huge surf swells lashed the coast around Cape Byron.

“I suspect there may be people that may have perished overnight as a result of those conditions,” said NSW State Emergency Service Deputy Commissioner Mark Morrow told ABC.

Authorities have ordered almost 20,000 people to evacuate to higher ground across parts of southern Queensland and the neighboring NSW, where thousands of schools also shut.

At Murwillumbah, a NSW town of 8,000 people, weather forecasters said the major Tweed River was beyond its banks and running higher than previously recorded.

“The water’s the highest I’ve ever seen it, heaps of shops are closed and most places shut at midday yesterday and everyone went home while they still could,” Natasha Bolden told Reuters from the Murwillumbah Golf Club.

“The south side is underwater,” she said.

In the cyclone-hit zone further north in Queensland, holidaymakers evacuated resort islands along the world-famous Great Barrier Reef, where the storm was strongest.

Miners Glencore and BHP, said they were still assessing the extent of any disruption to coal shipments.

Queensland’s top insurers, Suncorp Group and RACQ, said it was too early to put a dollar figure on the damage. </s> Flooded rivers were still rising Saturday in two Australian states with two women dead and four people missing after torrential rains in the wake of a powerful tropical cyclone.

Queensland police warned that the Logan River, which runs through Beenleigh south of Brisbane, would not hit peak flood levels for several more hours while the city of Rockhampton to the north was also facing a major threat.

Commissioner Ian Stewart warned there was “still a major risk to the community around Logan and further south caused by that flooding situation.”

Rockhampton, with a population of over 80,000 on the Fitzroy River, is expected to suffer flood levels not seen for a century by Wednesday and Stewart urged residents in low-lying areas to leave.

“By Wednesday, we will be at peak flooding in Rockhampton,” he said.

“It won’t just be on Wednesday, it will be a gradual rise, so I encourage people to move now.”

Queensland police tweeted “we currently have four people missing… that we have serious concerns about,” but provided no further detail.

Tens of thousands of people have been evacuated from a string of towns in Queensland and New South Wales as the floods move south towards Ballina.

Category four Cyclone Debbie hit northeastern Australia on Tuesday between Bowen and Airlie Beach ripping up trees and causing widespread damage that is still being assessed.

It was downgraded to a tropical low as it tracked southeast. But the storm still packed damaging winds and dumped huge amounts of rain all the way down the east coast to Sydney and beyond before blowing out over the Tasman Sea.

Police on Friday found the body of a woman who disappeared in floodwaters near Murwillumbah just south of the Queensland border.

And a 64-year-old woman, whose vehicle was swept off a causeway on a property in Gungal, in the Hunter Valley south of Sydney was also found dead Friday.

Lismore, south of Murwillumbah was among the worst flooded towns on Friday with Tweed Heads, Kingscliff and Murwillumbah also subject to evacuation orders.

Just to the north the popular Queensland tourist city of Gold Coast and surrounds were also inundated.

In areas further north where the cyclone made landfall, water and power were still being restored.

Bowen, Mackay and the Whitsunday islands, where power went down for more than 50,000 people, bore the brunt of the cyclone.

The military has mobilised 1,300 soldiers for the clean-up, with helicopters and planes deploying to restore infrastructure and supply emergency food, water and fuel.

The Insurance Council of Australia declared the Queensland and northern NSW regions disaster zones, adding that the damage bill could top Aus$1 billion (U.S. $770 million).

The council’s chief Rob Whelan compared Debbie it to Cyclone Oswald, a category five storm which hit in 2013 and caused over Aus$1 billion in damage. </s> BRISBANE: Tens of thousands of people have been evacuated from towns in two Australian states as authorities warned Friday there could be deaths from severe flooding caused by ex-tropical cyclone.

Category four Cyclone Debbie hit northeastern Australia on Tuesday between Bowen and Airlie Beach in Queensland state, ripping up trees, washing boats onto land and causing widespread damage.

Debbie was downgraded to a tropical low as it tracked southeast, but continued to pack damaging gusts and dump huge amounts of rain all the way down the eastern coast to New South Wales state, south of Queensland, and Sydney.

Lismore near the NSW coast was hard hit, with the State Emergency Service (SES) warning of three-metre (9.8-feet) high flood levels in the town.

“Overnight we had about 130 flood rescues, most of which services were unable to get to. So… as we start to go out and try to find people that made those calls overnight, there could be some very distressing news,” SES acting Deputy Commissioner Mark Morrow told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

“There could be people overnight that perished in that flood, we don’t know at this stage.”

Other towns subject to evacuation orders include Tweed Heads, Kingscliff and Murwillumbah.

Further north in Queensland, the popular tourist city of Gold Coast and other nearby regions were also inundated by water.

Bureau of Meteorology regional director Bruce Gunn said there had been widespread rain of between 100-300mm falls over the last two days in southeast Queensland where the Gold Coast is located.

“In terms of what happened in the last 24 or 48 hours, we have seen some pretty big rainfall totals,” he told Brisbane’s Courier Mail.

“There is still that strong risk around the Gold Coast.”

In the areas hit by Debbie, including Bowen, Mackay and the Whitsundays, some 50,000 people were still without power, Queensland officials said.

The military has mobilised 1,300 soldiers to help assess the full extent of damage and aid the clean-up, with helicopters and planes deploying to restore infrastructure and supply emergency food, water and fuel. – AFP </s> A flooded street in the northern New South Wales town of Lismore.

BRISBANE Rising floods plagued large parts of eastern Australia yesterday as emergency workers battled to restore water and electricity in cyclone-hit areas, with the recovery efforts expected to last several months.

At least three people were dead and several missing after torrential rain inundated large areas of Queensland and New South Wales states, flooding homes and forcing the evacuation of tens of thousands of people.

Category four Cyclone Debbie smashed into Queensland on Tuesday between Bowen and Airlie, ripping up trees and causing widespread damage that is still being assessed.

Even as skies began to clear, numerous towns were still on flood alert and some regions remain under water.

Logan, just south of Brisbane, reflected the varied situation, with rising floods affecting some areas while other parts swung into clean-up mode as waters receded.

"This is unprecedented for us," Logan city mayor Luke Smith said yesterday, warning that his city was still "in flux" with one key river remaining at high levels. "The sky is the limit at this stage about what that means," he added about the potential damage bill.

In Rockhampton in central-east Queensland, residents were bracing themselves for the biggest floods they have experienced since 1954.

"Debbie is not done with us yet," Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said, when visiting Rockhampton on Saturday. "This one is going to be a big one," she added yesterday.

The Insurance Council of Australia has declared Queensland and northern New South Wales disaster zones, estimating the damage bill could reach A$1 billion (S$1.06 billion).
Authorities of New South Wales issue a State Emergency Service for the towns of Murwillumbah and Lismore, and at least 12 flood rescues are underway as former Cyclone Debbie moves south from north Queensland.