Evacuations start in Brisbane's west as police warn floods death toll 'will exceed 20'

THE Queensland flood crisis has triggered evacuations in the heart of Brisbane, amid reports that another five bodies have been found.

A car is trapped in flash flooding in Toowoomba, where at least eight people have died. Picture: ABC

THE Queensland flood crisis has triggered evacuations in the heart of Brisbane, amid reports that another five bodies have been found.

The Brisbane Courier-Mail is reporting that the bodies were found today in the Lockyer Vallery, taking the area's death toll to 13.

Julia Gillard warned today of “dark days ahead” for Queenslanders as emergency services personnel continue the search for more than 70 people reported missing in the floods.

“The nation does need to brace itself for the fact that the death toll as a result of yesterday's flash flooding and walls of water is likely to rise,” a sombre prime minister said in Canberra.

Police told residents near the Brisbane River at West End, in the inner city, to move to higher ground, as well as residents in Strathpine and Caboolture, north of Brisbane.

To Brisbane's west, the city of Ipswich is also in evacuation mode, with the council warning people close to the rising Bremer River to move to evacuation centres.

In the Lockyer Valley, already hit yesterday by flash flooding, further flash flooding alerts are current for Forest Hill and Laidley.

Both of those communities are being evacuated.

The evacuations came as police warned that southern Queensland’s flash flood death toll will top 20, with reports that the body of a man has just been recovered from a swollen creek near Gatton.

Premier Anna Bligh has warned that the official death toll of eight will almost certainly rise, with grave concerns held by many of those who are still missing. Half the known dead are children. Another is a mother, all from Toowoomba.

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“We have eight confirmed deaths at this point,” Anna Bligh said today. “But we expect that figure to rise and potentially quite dramatically.”

Ms Bligh said there were “whole families unaccounted for”. She said half of the eight deaths confirmed so far were children.

SES crews and police are combing homes in the Lockyer valley communities of Grantham and Withcott, as well as those along Murphys Creek, which bore the brunt of the “inland tsunami” that ripped down the Toowoomba range yesterday.

Ms Bligh declared the flood emergency was “breaking hearts”, but would not affect the will of people to deal with the disaster and recover.

She said the search and rescue operation remained in a desperate phase, with people still trapped in the floods.

Police on the scene at the bottom of the range, in the epicentre of the disaster zone, told The Australian they expected the death toll would reach 20, and possibly higher.

Ms Bligh said 72 people remained unaccounted for, and that figure was also likely to rise although 50 of the 72 people feared missing in Grantham are reported to have been found safe in a school hall.

“We're hoping and praying that many of those 72 people have gone to safety overnight and will be found safe and well,” she said.

“But given the circumstances, we hold very grave concerns for many of those people who are unaccounted for in this region.

“Many of the people who are stranded or unaccounted for are families and young children and some of those who have lost their lives overnight are young children, including a mother and two children in a vehicle.”

Ms Bligh said bad weather was hampering search efforts where people were still stranded in “dire and critical circumstances”.

Specialist teams have been deployed to the region and rescue teams are on stand-by, as well as additional fire and rescue officers.

But weather is stopping them from being deployed, the premier said.

“We have a grim and desperate situation,” she added.

More updates to come