Pontoons float down the swollen Brisbane River today. Photo / Getty Images
Peaking river levels in Brisbane could have a devastating effect this evening.
Rising waters entered Brisbane suburbs late yesterday, and authorities warned that Australia's third-largest city faced potentially disastrous floods when a 4.1m high tide hits about 3pm (6pm NZT) local time today.
City Mayor Campbell Newman said almost 20,000 homes in low-lying areas of the city of about 2 million were expected to be swamped by the time the river system it is built on reaches its expected peak tomorrow.
Tomorrow's high tide at 4am (7am NZT) is expected to take the river to 5.5m - above the levels of a catastrophic flood in 1974 in which 14 people died.
for a livestreaming webcam of the Brisbane River in flood.
Mr Newman said 19,700 residential properties and 3500 commercial premises in 2100 streets are likely to be flooded in the city by Thursday, based on the latest flood modelling.
A further 12,000 expected to have flooding across part of their property.
A second evacuation centre opened in Brisbane at the QEII Stadium this morning, adding to the emergency accommodation provided at the RNA Showgrounds. 150 people stayed the night at the showgrounds last night and 184 people are there currently.
Mr Newman said up to 6,500 were expected to use the evacuation centres in coming days. Officials have urged anyone in a growing list of low-lying suburbs to prepare their homes, then get out to stay with friends and family.
Mr Newman said the council would review the situation to see whether further evacuation centres would need to be opened.
"Stay calm, but act wisely,'' Police Commissioner Bob Atkinson told reporters. "If you're in doubt, evacuate to friends or evacuate. Don't take unnecessary risks."
Currently about 56,000 homes and businesses in Brisbane are without power.
Traffic lights are also going to out in some areas of the city as power is cut of off to parts of the CBD, Queensland premier Anna Bligh said.
Some residents queued for up to four hours yesterday to get sandbags being handed out at emergency services depots. Supermarket shelves in some parts of town were emptied of bottled water, milk and batteries.
The Brisbane River has already broken its banks at Yeronga Corso, Jindalee and Toowong.
At a press conference this afternoon (NZT), Queensland premier Anna Bligh said debris, pontoons and boats coming down the Brisbane River were a "significant issue".
"We have salvage operations occurring so we don't see further damage from those objects hitting businesses and homes."
Popular floating restaurant Drift Cafe - formerly Oxley's on the River - broke away from its pontoon and began floating down the river this morning.
The
Brisbane Times
reports it is now almost completely submerged.
"[The restaurant] is very likely to sink sometime today. Salvage efforts were made yesterday, but in the interests of safety those efforts have now stopped," Premier Anna Bligh said this morning.
The city is protected by a large dam built after the 1974 floods. But Mr Newman said the reservoir was full, and a water release that would cause low-level flooding was inevitable.
The Port of Brisbane has been closed and is only open to emergency supplies.
"Biggest message to the people of the city of Brisbane and the city of Ipswich is to not travel if you do not have to," said Ms Bligh.
"This is not a tourism event, it is a serious disaster."
According to ABC Radio, all public transport in the Brisbane area is shutting down from 1pm (4pm NZT).
Ms Bligh said additional supplies of medicines have been brought into the state as the risk of disease spreading increases.
"We have not seen any large-scale public health issues," she said.
Police are advising that as both Brisbane and Ipswich, a city 40km south-west of Brisbane, are vastly different than they were 1974 - with more people, denser concentrations of housing and more high-rise apartments - far more people are likely to be affected by a similar water level to 1974.
Ipswich under water
Up to 33 per cent of Ipswich could be underwater in hours, with floodwaters from the Bremer River, which have already submerged entire blocks of the CBD, set to peak at 20.5m at around 2pm (NZT), revised from an earlier prediction of 22m.
Fifteen hundred Ipswich residents have fled their homes and flocked to one of eight evacuation centres.
Parts of the Ipswich CBD are already under water and some homes and businesses already have water lapping at their rooftops, as a brown sea sweeps through the city.
Rows of shops, including a large supermarket in the middle of Ipswich, have only their awnings above the rising tide.
The Coles supermarket is under 2.5 metres of water, with only the store logo and its awning peaking out above the floodwaters.
Ipswich and surrounding suburbs have a population of 162,000 people. Mayor Paul Pisasale told ABC Radio Queensland the situation in the city was "drastic".
Council workers said they had fielded more than 3000 telephone inquiries.
One was from a gentleman floating in a boat above his home's roof.
Ipswich councillor Paul Tully said the Goodna Shopping Centre, in east Ipswich, was already flooded.
It's "total chaos", he says, with water rising at one metre per hour on this morning.
Two Goodna service stations had been inundated and petrol was spilling into the floodwaters.
Fire at Suncorp Stadium
Sunday's A-League soccer match between the Wellington Phoenix and the Brisbane Roar is in further doubt after a fire at Brisbane's Suncorp Stadium when rising floodwaters triggered a short circuit in an electricity generator today.
Smoke was seen streaming from a vent on the second story of the central city stadium following an explosion about 12.30pm (NZT), while the water level has risen to about 1.2-metres, inundating the ground floor of the 60,000-seat complex.
The entire pitch was also totally water logged.
With the Brisbane River expected to peak at 5.5 metres early tomorrow morning, it seems highly unlikely the Phoenix will be able to play their round 23 fixture against the competition leading Roar.
The Phoenix were expected to find out today whether the game would go ahead.
Football Federation Australia was yesterday exploring alternative venues but if the game had to be called off, then it would be rescheduled before the end of the regular season on February 13.
67 missing
Queensland state Emergency Services Minister Neil Roberts said the confirmed death toll from Monday's flash flooding west of Brisbane - described as "an inland instant tsunami" - remained at 10, with the number of people missing dropping to 67 from more than 90.
Many of those missing are in the city of Toowomba, 130km west of Brisbane, which was yesterday hit by an "inland tsunami" of flash flooding after a superstorm dumped 150mm of rain in 30 minutes.
Ms Bligh said the number of people unaccounted for in the Toowoomba area had risen after police took more missing persons reports overnight.
At a press conference this afternoon (NZT), Ms Bligh said search and rescue operations to find the missing could take several days.
There have been no further confirmed deaths, she said, but grave fears are held for dozens of people reported missing, especially in the Lockyer Valley communities of Murphys Creek and Grantham.
"It is expected we will find further persons deceased in those areas," state disaster co-ordinator Deputy Police Commissioner Ian Stewart said.
"The number we just don't know at this stage."
The coroner has gone to the Lockyer Valley, where most of the recent deaths have been, as have eight specialist counselling teams.
Flooding is continuing across the state, with many towns were being flooded for the second time in 10 days, Ms Bligh said.
"We can draw inspiration from their resilience," she said.
200,000 affected by flooding
Queensland has been battling floods since late November.
The floods have affected more than 200,000 people, and left 20 dead (including 10 from flash-flooding this week).
According to Queensland police, other towns hit by flooding this week include Dalby, where 125 people are in the local evacuation centre.
Chinchilla faces a likely peak above that of 10 days ago and evacuations in Texas have started.
While the river level at Rockhampton and Gympie is falling, the river level at Maryborough is rising and there is new flooding in Bundaberg.
Esk and Toogoolawah are both isolated by road.
Relentless storms and rain have grounded helicopters and specialist rescue teams and hindered clean-up work in areas where floodwaters have receded. Medical authorities are warning of disease.
Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard said she had been shocked by images of devastating in the flood-hit areas.
"I think we've all been shocked by the images of that wall of water just wreaking such devastation (in Toowoomba) and I agree with you that when we hear the statistics about how many homes are going to be hit in Ipswich and here in Brisbane, the dimensions of it are truly mind-boggling," Ms Gillard said.
"We are bracing for further bad news," she said.
She promised financial aid to the victims and said the defence forces would continue to help with the crisis.
At a press conference this afternoon (NZT), Ms Gillard said the Defence Force would be providing seven more helicopters to help with search and rescue efforts.
Ms Bligh said last week the cost of the floods could be as high as $5 billion, the latest figure available.
The floods have also reached the bordering state of New South Wales, with about 4,500 people stranded, though the situation was not yet as dire as in Queensland.
Kiwi's business to be covered by six feet of water
Unstoppable flood waters are set to inundate the business of a New Zealander living in Brisbane.
Christine Shepherd, a former chair of Waitakere Community Board, says she has spent the day evacuating computer equipment and files from her downtown company Lennon Engineering and Construction.
Now she says she can do nothing but wait for the flood that is expected to cover her office in six feet of water.
"It's a bit scary. We just don't know what to expect. It's that unknown that's the most scary thing.
"We've been told the waters are going to inundate the office if it's above the levels of the 1974 flood like they say. I'm 5 foot 8 and it's supposed to be just over my head."
Ms Shepherd says a point on the bank of the Brisbane River where she took a photo last night has now been completely covered by flood waters.
She is planning to move her car to higher ground and wait out the flood in her second floor apartment about 1km from the CBD.
The feeling of helplessness in the face of the floods is the hardest thing to deal with, she says.
"It's pretty much a sentence hanging over you. I've never been involved in a disaster before. You can only be as prepared as you can be.
"You just do what you can do and go home and wait."
She says Brisbane CBD is now a "ghost town" with workers evacuating and waiting out the flood in their homes.
Others are helping emergency service workers prepare the city for the flood, she says.
"It's looking pretty bad even now. It's a beautiful sunshiny day but the water levels are just going up.
"Everybody is just doing what they can. Some are helping with sand bagging."
- Hayden Donnell
The 80m submarine features US combat systems and torpedoes.