Premier defends timing of school closure

Premier Annastacia 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.

Schools are also closed on Friday.