ADF to aid flood stricken Gold Coast as flood risk moves on

The severe weather which has smashed the Gold Coast and surrounds causing "scary" damage will ease forecasters say, as the army prepares to move in to clean up.

Crews from the Australian Defence Force (ADF) will be deployed from Thursday, Federal Agriculture Minister Murray Watt said, while state and federal funding will be on offer to those hit.

It's feared thousands in the region could be without power for up to 10 days, and extra police have been posted in some communities after unconfirmed reports of looting around Mount Tamborine.

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Queensland Premier Stephen Myles said emergency crews were working as hard as they could in conditions he described as "nothing short of scary."

Brisbane and the Sunshine Coast are all still under severe weather warnings by the Bureau of Meteorology.

By 9am today, dozens of catchments had already been dumped with 200-300 millimetres of water, with floodwaters continuing to rise across the Gold Coast hinterland.

It's just the latest flooding crisis over the past few weeks, with ten people dead over the festive period as floods hit the east coast.

All beaches along the Gold Coast are closed due to debris and poor water quality from the recent storms.

Swimmers were urged to stay out of the water.

Dam levels rise amid deluge

Queensland government agency Seqwater has started undertaking controlled dam releases while several ungated dams are spilling over.

Flood operations engineers have been monitoring dam levels since moving to alert level late last night and warned this morning it was possible dam releases could occur in the next 48 hours.

This became a reality at Somerset Dam this afternoon after water levels reached 76.8 per cent capacity.

That water is being released into Wivenhoe Dam, which Seqwater says should only see an impact of half a metre, not leading to any releases of Wivenhoe, or any impacts to communities.

North Pine is the second dam being monitored which has exceeded 48 per cent.

The waterway currently has a full supply level of 68 per cent while it undergoes infrastructure upgrades.

Meanwhile half a dozen ungated dams are spilling over in the state's south-east including Cedar Pocket, Leslie Harrison, Little Nerang, Nindooinbah, Wappa and Wyaralong.

Hinze Dam on the Gold Coast is 95.3 per cent full, while Borumba near Gympie is 85 per cent.

Overall the water grid is at 68.8 per cent capacity but a temporary full supply level of 80 per cent.

Risk moves to Brisbane, Sunshine Coast, NSW

Brisbane, the Sunshine Coast and parts of Northern New South Wales are at risk of flash floods and landslides caused by more heavy rain.

Forecasters say the brunt of the rain system is moving north.

Heavy and widespread rainfall is forecast to continue from Gympie to the NSW border , leaving authorities fearing "life-threatening flash flooding".

Some areas are expected to cop daily totals possibly exceeding 350 millimetres and localised "intense" rainfall.

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Watt said the federal government had ordered the deployment of 50 ADF personal and high-clearance vehicles to assist with the recovery effort.

They are expected to be available for a week to help with the clean-up.

Queensland Deputy Premier Cameron Dick also announced a round of state and federal funding would be available for residents in Gold Coast, Logan and Scenic Rim affected by the floods.

Disaster assistance concessional loans will be available for loans up to $250,000.

Essential working capital loans up to $100,000 will also be available for business operations like paying rent and staff wages that have been interrupted by flooding.

Reports of looting

Earlier on Tuesday, Queensland Police Deputy Commissioner Shane Chelepy said there had been some reports of looting around Mount Tamborine, inland from the Gold Coast.

Police were yet to confirm those reports, he said, but additional officers had been posted to watch for looters and safeguard houses.

"I think it's a despicable act. The police will take a very hard line and we won't take a backward step on that sort of behaviour," Chelepy said.

Chelepy said people had found it very hard, since Christmas, when storms first hit the area.

"A number of our communities in the Scenic Rim, Logan, Gold Coast area were just starting to recover and now we've had this torrential rain," he said.

"People need the rain to stop."

Crews fighting to restore power

With thousands of residents cut off from power, and generators in short supply, affected residents have been holding their breath for some relief.

Crews from energy companies including Energex have been working tirelessly to restore power and downed lines, but collapsed trees have brought widespread outages.

Approximately 700 crews from Energy Queensland were estimated to be working to restore power.

It is believed that 11,000 people are still without power.

Dick described the scale of the damage to energy infrastructure: "This isn't reconnection, this is rebuild."

Queensland Premier Stephen Myles said "absolutely everyone is working as hard as they can to get the debris removed and get the power back on."

While he acknowledged the frustration of some in the community who have been without power for weeks now, he maintained that "We have to keep our crews safe.

"There have been times where the wind and rain have been too heavy for our crews to be out there working, but all of the rest of the time they are."

QFES Deputy Commissioner Kevin Walsh said the Gold Coast and Scenic Rim had experienced "intense rainfall, with up to 500 millimetres in some locations over the last 24 hours.

"So the ground is absolutely saturated. And what we're seeing is with quick spurts of intense rainfall, the river systems, creeks and roadways, the flooding is rising very quickly, and catching people unaware."

The Gold Coast Hinterland copped the brunt of the falls yesterday with more than 240 millimetres falling from 9am at Wongawallan and Cedar Creek, 208 millimetres at North Tamborine and 155 millimetres at Mount Tamborine.

The Bureau of Meteorology warned the storms were "hit-and-miss" – making them harder to predict – but expected the heavy rainfall to move generally northward today.

A severe weather warning remained current for the whole south-east coast this morning, along with flood watches for most of the region's major rivers.

Further south, the NSW State Emergency Service responded to more than 115 incidents in the past 24 hours, in response to the impacts of storms and flooding in the north east of the state.