Flood searches yield another grim find, as Queensland death toll rises to 17

EMOTIONAL church services have been held in the flood-ravaged Lockyer Valley, west of Brisbane, as the discovery of another victim raised Queensland's death toll to 17.

EMOTIONAL church services have been held in the flood-ravaged Lockyer Valley, west of Brisbane, as the discovery of another victim raised Queensland's death toll to 17.

Premier Anna Bligh said today the body of a mature-aged woman had been recovered in a debris-filled home at Grantham in the Lockyer Valley that had already been searched twice before.

Police today released lists of those confirmed dead, and those that are missing.

Up to 14 people remain unaccounted for, as military, police and State Emergency Service teams continue to sift through wrecked homes, creeks and mud-caked paddocks in the Lockyer Valley, west of Brisbane.

Ms Bligh appealed for local residents, desperate to get back to their homes, to be patient. She said the discovery the latest victim after two prior searches of her home underlined the complexity of the recovery effort.

More than 500,000 sq km of Queensland has been affected by the flood emergency, and 2.1 million people live in areas that have been declared disaster-struck by the state government.

Ms Bligh said arrangements were being made to have every child in Queensland start school next Monday, even though 92 schools had been inundated and another 29 had floodwaters in their grounds.

This was critical to returning the state to normal, with all but five buildings in Brisbane's CBD operational and public transport services ramping up after last week's disastrous flooding.

Ms Bligh was speaking after police released the names of more of the dead and missing, and as hundreds packed church services in Grantham and the nearby town of Gatton.

An open-air service in Murphys Creek, one of the hardest hit of the towns, started at 10am, as shocked locals came to grips with the likely death toll of over 30.

In Brisbane, an army of volunteers regrouped and descended on flood-damaged streets, dotted across 85 suburbs stretching from the west of the city to its rivermouth.

And at Condamine, on Queensland's Western Downs, the town was bracing for its second inundation in a month.

While the official death toll rose to 17, grave fears were also held for up to 14 missing people.

Among those missing are a one-year-old girl snatched from her family in flood waters at Grantham.

The girl's grandmother, Dawn Radke, 56 is also missing and was last seen being swept downstream in a fast-moving torrent.

Sylvia Baillie, 72, was last seen standing at the front of her Postmans Ridge home just seconds before it was washed away.

Brenda May, 56, disappeared after her home collapsed in Grantham.

All of those missing and many of the dead are from the Lockyer Valley, which bore the brunt of the horrendous flooding, described by many of the survivors as like an “inland tsunami”.

Police identified six more of the victims overnight.

Llync-Chian Clarke, 31, was caught in a Rural Fire Brigade Truck when it was hit by a wall of water on the Gatton Helidon Road, along with her two children aged 5 and 12. All three were later found dead inside the truck.

Jean Gurr, 88, was trapped inside her home when the wall of water hit and later found dead inside.

Pauline Lesley Magner, 65, was found on the bank of a creek near the sawmill in Gatton, while also identified is Selwyn Hector Schefe, 52, who was swept away in his home on Monday and found on Thursday.

Also identified were Robert John Kelly, 30, whose body was found in an overturned Toyota Landcruiser in Myall Creek at Dalby, and Van Toan Giang, 24, who was checking on a family property at Darra, in Brisbane's west, on Thursday when he disappeared.

The only other victim previously identified is Donna Rice, 43, who died along with her 13-year-old son after being trapped inside their car in the Toowoomba CBD on Monday.

While other cities and towns have begun cleaning up after the major floods, the small town of Condamine is also waiting to be cleaned up - by another wave of water.

The town was awash early this month and another flood is on the way with the Condamine River expected to peak at 14.8 metres late today or early tomorrow.

The 150-strong community had just finished cleaning up when news came that another disaster was on the way and evacuated residents will have to wait until at least the middle of the week to return home.

Mayor Ray Brown said while the Condamine River was expected to peak below the 15.2 metre record set at the start of the month, the river was flowing faster this time around, raising concerns about structural damage to properties.

“The velocity of the river this time is much faster, the pace is of alarming proportions,” he said.

Condamine's only inhabitants today were two police officers and six State Emergency Service personnel, after residents were evacuated for a second time.

Next in line are the towns of Surat, which has been put on major flood alert, and St George, where the Balonne River is expected to peak above 12m today and early next week.

In Ipswich and Brisbane, thousands of volunteers are again expected to descend on council-organised clean-up centres today.

About 12,000 answered the call to arms in Brisbane yesterday and Premier Anna Bligh today paid tribute to those who had turned out to help.strangers in need.

“A kind of magic has broken out,” Ms Bligh told Sky News.

However the horror of inundation came back for residents of one of Brisbane's suburbs this morning when they woke to find fresh floodwater in some of their streets.

Torwood and Vincent streets, in Milton, were back under water again, bringing fresh misery for residents recovering from last week's devastating floods.

The two streets were among hundreds across the city to be deluged on Wednesday, but had since dried out as the Brisbane River water level dropped.

Lord Mayor Campbell Newman said life would return to normal for some of the affected parts of Brisbane tomorrow, but many businesses would still be without electricity.

Life is also beginning to return to some level of normality for people in Goondiwindi in Queensland's southwest.

Inspector Greg Morrow, the disaster coordinator for the Warwick District, told reporters today the river level was at 9.8 metres and still falling.

He said the Cunningham Highway to Warwick was expected to re-open later today and a food re-supply would also be brought into the town.

Meanwhile a further $20 million has also been donated to the official Queensland flood relief fund, with Australians being urged to dig deep and help victims of the disaster.

The Queensland and federal governments today announced they were donating an additional $10 million each to the Premier's Disaster Relief Appeal.

“Australians in every corner of our country can be proud of what they've raised for the flood victims so far, but let's try and go that extra mile to give a bit more to those devastated by these floods,” Julia Gillard said in a statement.

Donations to the fund have so far reached about $64 million, Ms Bligh said.

“But this disaster has now grown into something absolutely unprecedented in our state and the situation we are facing has more than tripled in size since the appeal began,” she added.

The money is being used to rebuild homes, replace property and get Queenslanders back on their feet.

At least 28,000 properties have been affected by the flooding.

Additional reporting: AAP