Supplies rushed in before city cut off

The military is rushing supplies to the flood-stricken city of Rockhampton before the last road link is cut, with 150 homes already under water.

The Red Cross is expecting up to 1000 residents of the central Queensland city to head to an evacuation centre over the next few days.

The Fitzroy River got to 9m yesterday and was slowly rising ahead of a 9.4m peak expected tomorrow.

At that level the city will be completely isolated, 400 homes flooded and thousands of other properties affected by floodwaters.

The communities of St George and Surat, about 500km west of Brisbane, are braced for record flooding, with extra police sent in to aid preparations.

Both communities are expected to be hit in coming days with water from the swollen Balonne River system.

Police have again urged people not to drive through floodwaters after another death on a flooded causeway in the state's central west.

A person drowned yesterday when a car was washed into a flooded creek while trying to drive across the causeway at Aramac. Police believe there were two people in the car, but that the second person escaped.

Premier Anna Bligh, who is in Rockhampton checking on emergency preparations, said 150 homes had already been inundated there, and about 1000 properties had water in their yards.

"Many Rockhampton residents will recall the devastating floods of 1991 and 1954. These river peaks are at those historical levels and unfortunately it will be a long time before this massive amount of water recedes," she said.

Rockhampton's airport runway is underwater and road links to the south and west are cut.

Military aircraft will fly food and other essential supplies to Mackay and truck them south to Rockhampton before the last road link, Bruce Highway, is cut.

Rockhampton Mayor Brad Carter said police were working to empty at-risk homes, saying people could go to the evacuation centre, or board special bus runs to reach family and friends on higher ground.

"If the police tap you on the shoulder and tell you you have to shift, that is a lawful direction," Carter told the ABC.

"We're doing that as compassionately as we can, but once that direction is given, there is no turning back - you have to evacuate your home."

But a handful of people in the hard-hit, low-lying suburb of Depot Hill are not going anywhere.

"Only the real self-sufficient ones are still here, the ones with camping equipment and boats and generators, everyone else has been evacuated," Fitzroy Hotel owner Tony Higgins said.

Higgins said the police presence in Depot Hill had been intense.

"It's been 24-hour surveillance here, we haven't seen any signs of looting."

Deputy Police Commissioner and State Disaster Co-ordinator Ian Stewart said efforts to get supplies into Rockhampton would continue until the road was cut.

Stewart said he was also very concerned about the communities of St George and Surat on the Balonne River.

The Bureau of Meteorology expects a peak "similar to or higher than" the historic 13.39m peak that ravaged St George in March last year.

At Surat, north of St George, Maranoa Regional Council Mayor Robert Loughnan said the river was at 12.6m and was expected to get to 13m today.

He said plans were being made for a 13.4m peak "just to make surewe are erring on the side of caution".

Loughnan said the last road into Surat was expected to be cut within the next day or so, probably isolating the town for a couple of weeks, but it was well supplied.

Even at a peak of about 13.5m, only six to eight homes in Surat would be affected.

Queensland's unprecedented flood crisis has already affected more than 200,000 people across an area the size of New South Wales.

The state Premier and Prime Minister Julia Gillard yesterday announced grants of up to A$25,000 ($33,000) to help small business owners and farmers get back on their feet.

The Courier-Mail reported that snakes and other creatures were fleeing the floods and coming into closer contact with people.

Kylie Alexander, who was recovering in Mackay from a snake bite suffered on her station near Clermont, told the newspaper: "Snakes are everywhere out there.

"They come out of the floods in their thousands looking for high ground, some end up in the house."

- AAP