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The Brisbane City Council says a combination of heavy rainfall, flooding and full dams have all the hallmarks of the period leading up to to the 1974 floods in south east Queensland.
Record-breaking rainfall has flooded waterways, roads and homes, cut power and filled the region's dams.
The SES has received more than 2,000 calls for help since early this morning, with homes, businesses and properties flooded on Brisbane's north side.
Queensland's Emergency Services Minister Neil Roberts says there are parts of the city affected that have not been flooded in a decade.
The Lord Mayor Campbell Newman admits he is worried.
"Back in '73 there was an extended period of wet leading up to January '74 where we had a cyclonic rain event which turned into a rain depression and then dumped a whole lot of rain in the catchment areas," he said.
"That's something that will one day happen again and given that this is the first time we have had so much rain, plus with full dams, again it is of concern."
Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) weather forecasters say it is going to be wet for most of the week.
Many parts of the south-east have already broken October rainfall records.
BOM senior forecaster Brett Harrison says the heaviest falls are on Brisbane's northern outskirts, but conditions have eased slightly on the Gold Coast to the south and parts of the northern Sunshine Coast.
Mr Harrison says the wet weather is not expected to clear in the south-east until Thursday.
"The rainfall has become a bit more focussed now compared to affecting the whole south-east coast that we saw this morning," he said.
"The heaviest rain is affecting the northern parts of Brisbane and out towards the north-west and west."
At least 20 people from Deagon, on Brisbane's northern bayside, were evacuated from their homes because of a high tide around midday.
Resident Kerryn Watkins says she has lost everything.
"It's just a disaster, absolute disaster," she said.
Don Baker says it is the worst flooding he has seen in the area since he arrived in 1984.
"The police came and told us we had to go and that was it," he said.
Deputy Premier Paul Lucas says 20 stranded motorists have been rescued from their cars over the past few days.
"I just say to people, do not make yourself a statistic here," he said.
Energex says about 20,000 homes and businesses lost power over the past 24 hours, although supplies have been restored to nearly all of them.
- ABC
© ABC 2010
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