Australia Weather News

Residents in northern New South Wales have been ordered to evacuate ahead of "unprecedented" flooding, and south-east Queensland has been hit by damaging winds and heavy rain.

It comes as ex-Tropical Cyclone Debbie moves south, putting the Gold Coast on flood alert and knocking out power to 100,000 properties around the south-east corner of Queensland.

In NSW, the SES ordered residents of Lismore CBD, North and South Lismore to leave immediately, with the SES warning late on Thursday floodwaters were expected to spill over a levee protecting the area into the CBD overnight.

SES spokeswoman Sue Pritchard warned rescue operations would not be possible once water went over the levee.

"We have serious concerns for the Lismore area, we put out an evacuation order earlier in the day and we're now asking people to evacuate out of that area immediately," she said.

"The Wilson's River is rising very rapidly and we have concerns that once it overtops the levee, which it is likely to do after midnight, that we will not be able to assist people."

Ms Pritchard said a siren would be sounded when the levee started to overflow.

In addition, the weather bureau advised overnight rain would push Wilsons River to 11.5 metres by Friday morning.

Parts of Lismore and Murwillumbah are already under water, and the Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) said river levels in Lismore were predicted to be higher than they were during the 2001 and 2005 floods.

"Do not delay your evacuation. Roads will be congested or closed. You could become trapped and need rescue," an SES warning said referring to the flooding as "unprecedented".

Up to 400 millimetres of rain has fallen in some areas and at least 45 flood rescues have already taken place around the Lismore area.

"The Wilson's River is our biggest concern, that's risen so quickly we've gone straight to an evacuation order for about 6,000 residents [at Lismore]," SES Acting Deputy Commissioner Mark Morrow said.

"It's very dangerous conditions out there over the next 24 hours."

Residents in Murwillumbah South, Murwillumbah East and the Murwillumbah CBD have also been ordered to leave, with the SES warning water might go over the top of the levee in the Murwillumbah CBD.

Earlier on Thursday afternoon the SES issued a flood evacuation order urging residents within the Kyogle, Codong and Tumbulgum areas to leave as soon as they could.

There is also an emergency evacuation order for residents of Chinderah, Tweed Heads South, Kingsliff, Fingal Head and Bilambil.

Mr Morrow warned there was more rain expected overnight and urged residents to keep up to date with changing weather conditions.

'We're all nervous'

The SES has urged people subject to evacuation orders to leave early and make their way to local evacuation centres if they are not able to reach other family or friends.

Evacuation centres have been set up for people ordered to leave their homes, including around Lismore, Tweed Heads and Murwillumbah.

Local resident Donna Walker said she made her way to the evacuation centre at Southern Cross University after she and her children were forced to leave their home at North Lismore.

"We're all nervous, we're all upset ... we're all not knowing where we're going," she said.

"[We don't know] what we're doing next, or what's going to happen to our belongings."

Ms Walker said she and her family were trying to make the best of a stressful situation.

"It's a bonding time ... I think there's a bit of bonding," she said.

"So, I said to the kids, 'we're all in the same situation, so you know take it easy on each other', so there's no fighting and things like that."

Tink Byers from the Richmond Hotel in Lismore said she was expecting floodwaters to inundate the hotel if they reach the predicted level.

"When the '74 floods did come, [water] did come right up two metres of the bottom floor," she said.

"There is great fear in Lismore at the moment. We do believe this is going to be quite extreme."

Severe weather in SEQ caps off day of heavy rainfall

Damaging winds inQueensland capped off a day of heavy rainfall across much of the south-east which caused flash flooding, road closures, and the shutdown of schools between Agnes Water and the NSW border.

The wild weather also saw authorities:

BOM senior forecaster Craig Burke earlier said severe weather could continue into the early hours of Friday morning.

"There's still another three to six hours of very heavy rainfall [to come]," he said.

"The immediate concern with the heavy rainfall across the south-east of Queensland is still there and residents really have to take care of themselves and follow the warnings and advice.

Gold Coast residents have been warned to prepare for flash flooding, with BOM saying the region will continue to receive heavy rainfall into the early hours of the morning.

Meteorologist Tim Blowsek said the high tide at 1:00am would put low-lying areas at risk.

"Expect to see flash flooding or at least river rises inundating low-lying areas around the Gold Coast Hinterland, even down to the Gold Coast later this evening and into tomorrow morning," he said.

In Springbrook on the Gold Coast, an elderly couple called for emergency services after their caravan became stranded in rising flood waters. Ambulance and fire units were attending the scene.

An emergency alert has also been issued for Jambin, with the Banana Shire Council advising residents of a continued dam release at Callide Dam.

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said people needed to stay at home overnight.

"Our biggest concern is this next band of thunderstorms, the winds that are going to be coming down," Ms Palaszczuk said.

"They've just hit the Sunshine Coast, we are hearing some preliminary reports of damage, just small structural damage at the moment so the next few hours, it's going to be really important for people to be indoors."

Flooding, rain, and destructive winds have brought down hundreds of power lines in the Sunshine Coast region but the weather bureau's Rick Threlfall said the system was gradually heading off the coast.

There have been reports of minor damage, and the SES has responded to thousands of call-outs.

Storms have knocked out power to nearly 100,000 properties around south-east Queensland, with about 23,000 homes blacked out in the Brisbane City region.

Almost a third of the outages are on the Sunshine Coast, and there are also major outages in the Redlands and Logan.

The southbound lanes of the Bruce Highway at Elimbah have also been closed with a contra-flow put in place, to cater for traffic in both directions, on the northbound lanes.