At Ipswich, where the Bremer River flooded 3000 homes and inundated businesses in the CBD, levels had fallen below 18 metres on Thursday morning, from the 19.5 metre peak, with efforts now turned to the clean up.
Evacuations
Queensland Premier Anna Bligh said authorities remained on high alert despite the Brisbane River peaking lower than anticipated.
"There is still a very dangerous situation and we have thousands of people who are waking this morning to the total devastation of either their home, their businesses," she told ABC Radio.
"This is still a very anxious time."
Blue sky, no rain, and slightly lower river levels was some "good news after a lot of time without it".
The premier has also warned that some Brisbane residents may not be able to move back into their flood-affected homes for months.
Brisbane City Council said the areas most affected by flooding in the city were the CBD, St Lucia, West End, Rocklea and Graceville.
Some 15,268 residential and commercial properties were affected today, it said. The council said flooding had also closed more than 150 roads.
Brisbane Lord Mayor Campbell Newman said about 11,900 homes have been fully flooded, with another 14,700 partially affected; 2500 businesses have been flooded with the same number partially affected.
Residents whose properties are expected to be affected by flooding should have self-evacuated either to the homes of family or friends, or to one of four evacuation centres in the city, police said.
Brisbane City Council said 700 people were now staying now staying at the evacuation centre at the RNA Showgrounds, Bowen Hills, while 325 people have self evacuated to the centre at QEII, Nathan.
Police are advising people to stay out of the floodwaters as they contain debris and contaminants.
Sightseeing is also being discouraged and residents have been told to limit all non-essential travel.
More than 115,000 Queensland homes were this morning without power. Power company Energex said around 78,000 of those properties were in Brisbane and another 30,000 in nearby Ipswich.
Recovering the dead
Police working to recover bodies in the worst-hit area of flood-ravaged Queensland yesterday described scenes of heartbreak and devastation.
One officer in the Lockyer Valley, about 100km west of Brisbane, said the task of recovering the dead was "simply horrific".
"We are searching for in excess of 30 people and at this stage we are in a body-recovery phase," a police spokesman said.
"We are recovering numerous bodies from the river and are prepared to recover many more."
All of the confirmed deaths in this week's floods were in the Lockyer Valley and the nearby cities of Toowoomba and Ipswich.
The official death toll stands at 12 with police not yet officially adding the death of a man whose body was found in a submerged car in Ispwich overnight.
Five of the deaths were in or near the small town of Grantham, which has a population of about 370.
The toll is likely to rise further, with authorities holding grave fears for 12 people, most of them from two families, who are still missing in the devastated valley community of Murphys Creek. A further 74 are reported missing.
"Unfortunately, the sheer scale of this disaster in the Murphys Creek area would suggest to us that the people who are missing there - and there are two families who account for most of those 11 - they have not been located," Queensland State Disaster Coordinator, Deputy Police Commissioner Ian Stewart, told the Nine Network.
"We hope we can determine what has happened to them today."
He said searches were also continuing in the small towns of Grantham and Withcott.
"The problem we have is that the people have been washed out of their homes and some of the homes are actually destroyed, like bombs have gone off there," Mr Stewart said.
"It's a war scene in the Lockyer Valley today."
- staff reporter, AAP, Toowoomba Chronicle, NZ HERALD STAFF, NEWSTALK ZB
Watch live video of the Brisbane River in flood:
