Cyclone Debbie: Meet the storm chaser who gets a thrill from severe weather

Paul Lyons has learnt how to control the adrenaline surges, but being in the middle of a massive storm still awakens a primal fascination he first identified as a small child.

"I was the kid that Mum used to yell out to get off the patio and stop sitting outside watching the lightning and the thunderstorms," he told ABC News Breakfast.

The freelance cameraman and passionate storm chaser has spent the last seven years chasing storms in Australia and travelling to the US to volunteer as a driver for tourist groups wanting to experience the same thrills.

Tornados are the big attraction in America and he's seen 63 in just the last few years. He also raced to meet Cyclone Yasi, which tore through Queensland in 2011.

"There's a whole heap of people who chase for different reasons," he said.

"The goal in chasing a cyclone, from a storm chaser's point of view, is to try and have an experience within the eye.

"I'd love to just see the amazingness of mother nature out in vast fields where nobody gets hurt, but unfortunately that doesn't always happen."

Today Mr Lyons is in northern Queensland tracking Cyclone Debbie and filming the preparations and responses for the ABC.

The Townsville local said this time he didn't need to chase the storm — it came to him.

And unlike tornados, which are relatively localised, cyclones can be much harder to track and predict.

"Even a high-end category two all the way up to a five, you just can't sit in your car on the side of the road and experience it," he said.

"You'll have debris flying and you'll have your windows smashed out and then you've got issues with your life."

Storm chasers come in all shapes and sizes, according to Mr Lyons, but for most the ultimate prize is what is called the "stadium effect".

"If you actually have a really severe cyclone, when the eye comes over you can look up and see blue sky or stars," he said.

"There's an account I heard when Cyclone Larry went over Innisfail back in the mid 2000s.

Technology has made the task of storm chasing much easier since the days when Mr Lyons would get out the charts and try to plot cyclone movements with the scant satellite images published in the newspapers.

Now there are myriad online tools and radars available to plot exactly where and when a storm is expected to hit.

"I know some chasers have some meteorological training and some are just self-taught," he said.

"It's using those skills you have to try to judge."

But it doesn't always go to plan.

Mr Lyons describes himself a safety-first kind of storm chaser. Still, that only gets you so far.

"We always work with a window of safety," he said.

"Usually tornados go south-west, north-east in the northern hemisphere, so they're fairly predictable with their paths.

In 2013 three close friends of the tour company he works with in the US were tracking a tornado near Oklahoma City and using scientific pods to gather data on the storm.

But something went wrong and when the tornado hit them they were gone.

"That was a wake-up call," Mr Lyons said.

He admitted some reckless storm chasers could give the group a bad name and said his passion had been labelled by some as "storm porn".

When he went into Cyclone Yasi in 2011 he was chastised by people who said he was taking foolish risks.

"But I went in with 200 litres of fuel, 100 litres of water, two weeks of food, I had accommodation with me.

"I could have camped on the side of the road basically for two weeks and no-one would have to save me."

Far from simple thrill seeking, storm chasers can also help educate the public about what happens during a cyclone, Mr Lyons said.

"People maybe see the preparation before the storm and they see the aftermath but they don't connect," he said.

"I think what storm chasing can do with the gathering of video is sometimes cover the gap."</s>As the carnage and destruction of Cyclone Debbie is uncovered animals across Queensland are among those seriously effected by the devastation of the storm.

Animal Welfare League Queensland CEO Denise Bradley told Daily Mail Australia it's vital to ensure animals are well looked after through the rough weather.

'Wild, wet weather can be very distressing for animals and so it’s important to bring them inside, keep them warm and dry.'

How to keep animals safe Be prepared early and make plans for pets Bring animals inside, keep them warm and dry. For outside animals it’s vital that they have high ground to escape any rising flood water Move pets early from low ground to ensure both they are safe Microchip dogs and cats and keep that information up-to-date to ensure that if they runaway that you can be reunited

'Storms, in particular are incredibly frightening, especially for dogs with their heightened sense of hearing so it’s very important to have them inside and secure when a storm strikes. It’s not unusual for dogs to jump fences they’ve never jumped before, rip security screens off their hinges and be found kilometres from home. They just continue to run, blindly trying to escape the thunder.'

She said: 'We urge people to microchip their dogs and cats and keep that information up-to-date to ensure that if they do run that you can be reunited.'

AWLQ has many foster carers who look after animals, such as these, which find themselves homeless.

'Please be prepared early so that you can move outside animals to higher ground, evacuate your pets from your home and avoid placing yourselves in unnecessary danger,' she said.

Birds are among the high-risk animals with one cockatoo left battered after her feathers were stripped off during the rampage of Cyclone Debbie.

It was taken in and cared for after the storm had passed.

The injured bird was left to contend with 260km/h winds as the category four storm smashed Daydream Island, off the coast of north Queensland, for five straight hours.

On Tuesday afternoon, as the storm moved west and hurtled towards the mainland, guests staying in a hotel on the island took the cockatoo in and fed her.

Alexis Kolsky, a woman staying on the island with friends for a wedding, took photographs of the adorable bird being taken care of and posted them on Twitter.

'A cockatoo was found stripped of feathers,' Ms Kolsky told The Huffington Post.

'Guests have taken (it) into their room and are feeding him. (It's) the only one (we've seen) that is so injured.'

Ms Kolsky said a friend of hers had a kangaroo in her corridor, while a bat had sought refuge in the hotel's atrium.

She also posted a video of a dogged lorikeet hanging on for its dear life during the peak of the storm.

Ms Kolsky was not the only one to witness birds doing their best to stay safe during the horrific conditions.

The night before the cyclone hit, Channel Nine presenter Luke Bradnam posted footage of a tiny bird hiding in the blinds of his Townsville balcony.

A photographer from Mackay, north Queensland, took an adorable photo of a cockatoo seeking shelter inside his rental car and looking out at the storm.

Early on Monday morning as Cyclone Debbie closed in on Australia's east coast, Today presenter Lisa Wilkinson said there were 'just about no birds left' during a live cross.

'They say the Animal Kingdom does have a sense of what mother nature has in store for us,' Wilkinson remarked.</s>Cyclone Debbie caused havoc making its way through New South Wales (NSW) and southern Queensland, Australia on March 28. Thousands of people had to be evacuated from their homes as floodwaters continued to rise. Some areas had about three times their monthly rainfall on March 30.

As a result of the floods, the waters in the area may now contain snakes, crocodiles and sharks.

An image appeared on social media showing the impact of Cyclone Debbie — a large bull shark washed up on a road near the town of Ayr in NSW.

​However it's not just sharks that have been spotted in the Australian floodwaters, snakes and crocodiles are also lurking in the aftermath of the ex-cyclone.

"Flooded waterways increase the possibilities of crocodiles and other animals, such as snakes turning up in unexpected places," a spokesperson for the state's Department of Environment and Heritage Protection said.

"In most circumstances, crocodiles will be moving through, trying to get out of fast-flowing creeks and waterways to the quieter areas they prefer. Snakes are good swimmers and they too may turn up in unexpected places and may even find their way into people's properties," they added.

The picture of the bull shark was taken by paramedic Lisa Smith who at first mistook it for a dolphin.

"At first I thought it was a dolphin, but then I thought 'nah, there wouldn't be any dolphins around here. I thought there were just crocs in that river. This should definitely teach people to never walk in floodwaters as you never know what's in them," Ms. Smith said in a recent interview.

​Some people even offered to remove the reptiles for free after the cyclone hit. Anthony Bailey, a snake catcher from Queensland was inundated with requests to remove the sharks and snakes. Bailey said snakes were fond of slithering indoors in wet conditions.

"They don't like sitting out in the rain, they come into houses or trees to escape the water and possibly looking for some warmth," he said.

Out of 25 of the world's most venomous snakes, Australia is home to 20 species, including the top ten.

Brown snakes, among the most venomous, are common in eastern Australia and can be as much as two metres (six feet) long when fully grown. Their bite can be fatal to humans.</s>Swollen rivers flooded entire towns along Australia’s east coast Friday, cutting roads and leaving residents clinging to roofs and floating down streets in boats after the remnants of a powerful cyclone swept through the region.

Flood sirens sounded before dawn at Lismore when the Wilsons River surged over the town’s levee. By daybreak the center of the town of 25,000 people in the Northern Rivers region of the state of New South Wales (NSW) was underwater.

Water was at roof level and cars, trash bins and other debris washed down streets, as residents fled and farmers drove their cattle to higher ground.

“We have everything happening, we’ve got people on rooftops, we’ve had people stuck in vans, it’s a disaster, an utter disaster,” NSW State Emergency Services Controller Ian Leckie told Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) radio.

The aftermath of Cyclone Debbie, which pounded Queensland state Tuesday, smashing tourist resorts, bringing down power lines and shutting down coal mines, has become a huge rain depression.

No deaths were reported so far from the storm, but there are still fears that fatalities may emerge after emergency workers logged more than 100 flood rescues during the night. Gales and huge surf swells lashed the coast around Cape Byron.

“I suspect there may be people that may have perished overnight as a result of those conditions,” said NSW State Emergency Service Deputy Commissioner Mark Morrow told ABC.

Authorities have ordered almost 20,000 people to evacuate to higher ground across parts of southern Queensland and the neighboring NSW, where thousands of schools also shut.

At Murwillumbah, a NSW town of 8,000 people, weather forecasters said the major Tweed River was beyond its banks and running higher than previously recorded.

“The water’s the highest I’ve ever seen it, heaps of shops are closed and most places shut at midday yesterday and everyone went home while they still could,” Natasha Bolden told Reuters from the Murwillumbah Golf Club.

“The south side is underwater,” she said.

In the cyclone-hit zone further north in Queensland, holidaymakers evacuated resort islands along the world-famous Great Barrier Reef, where the storm was strongest.

Miners Glencore and BHP, said they were still assessing the extent of any disruption to coal shipments.

Queensland’s top insurers, Suncorp Group and RACQ, said it was too early to put a dollar figure on the damage.</s>BALTIMORE (WJZ) — In the wake of Cyclone Debbie, which hit Australia’s Queensland territory this week, authorities found a bull shark on a road in the town of Ayr.

Ayr was one of many areas that experienced severe flooding. Thousands of people were evacuated from northern New South Wales and Southern Queensland, according to the BBC.

Some areas got about three times their monthly rainfall as a result of the category 4 cyclone. Brisbane was reportedly hit with 8 inches of in two hours.

“Think it’s safe to go back in the water?” Queensland Fire and Emergency Services wrote in its Facebook post about the shark. “Think again! You never know what lurks beneath the surface during a severe storm and what will wash up in the aftermath.”

Follow @CBSBaltimore on Twitter and like WJZ-TV | CBS Baltimore on Facebook</s>WHEN Bondoola woman Angie McBryde heard people were being evacuated due to Cyclone Debbie, lending a helping hand didn't take a second thought.

She took to Facebook to offer rooms on her 25 acre property for people who needed them.

Although no one took her up on her offer, the heart-warming gesture showed how Central Queenslander's pull together when times get tough.

"We've always had an organic farm here, at the moment it's not operating, but we've had accommodation over the years for backpackers over the years being able to stay and help out,” Angie said.

"I've got five beds which accommodate seven people and I was just offering for that to anyone who might need it.”

Angie knows all too well how devastating the impacts of this wild weather can be after Marcia tore through her home.

"I lost a couple of sliding doors, so the cyclone ended up happening inside my house,” she said.

"Structurally the house was fine, but I lost quite a lot of possessions.”

While Debbie hasn't hit quite as hard, Thursday was an anxious day for Angie and her children as Limestone Ck, which backs onto their property had burst.

"I couldn't sleep last night, there's nothing worse than having (bad weather) in the dark time when you can't see what's happening,” Angie said.

"My children had gone to sleep and I couldn't go to sleep comfortably not knowing what would happen.

"Usually in bad weather we lose about 10 acres underwater.”

During Marcia, Angie and her children were graced with the kindness of strangers and she urges people to do the same.

"If you've got resources that you're able to help other people with, it's all about passing it forward,” she said.</s>QUEENSLAND - A bull shark's been found washed up on a road in Australia following Cyclone Debbie. Queensland Fire and Rescue tweeted the image, along with a warning. "Think it's safe to go back in the water? Think again! A bull shark washed up in Ayr. Stay out of floodwater." The powerful cyclone brought widespread disruption to the area including flash flooding. Thousands of people had to flee their homes and some are still without power. Local journalist Phillip Calder was on his way to cover a story, when he discovered the shark, tweeting that it was: "The only victim of Burdekin flooding".

"He must've gotten caught in a torrent and confused, beached himself on the side of the road," Mr Calder told news.com.au.

"We were pretty amazed, we were turning up to shoot a flooding road, we weren't expecting to see wildlife as well."

Bull sharks are common in the area, with many of them living in nearby creeks and rivers.

The sharks can survive in both saltwater and freshwater and can travel far up rivers.

Alongside great whites and tiger sharks, bull sharks are aggressive in nature and are the most likely to attack humans.

Lots of animals have been affected by the cyclone including this bedraggled cockatoo.

The bird - which was named Debbie after the cyclone - was rescued among broken twigs in Queensland on Tuesday but later was found dead.</s>A second woman’s body was found Friday and tens of thousands of people were evacuated from towns in two Australian states after torrential rain caused by a powerful tropical cyclone.

Category four Cyclone Debbie hit northeastern Australia on Tuesday between Bowen and Airlie Beach in Queensland state, ripping up trees, washing boats onto land and causing widespread damage.

Debbie was downgraded to a tropical low as it tracked southeast, but continued to pack damaging gusts and dump huge amounts of rain all the way down the east coast to New South Wales state, south of Queensland, and Sydney.

NSW Police said the body of a woman who “disappeared in floodwaters overnight from a rural property” near Murwillumbah just south of the Queensland border was found on Friday.

The body of a 64-year-old woman, whose vehicle was swept off a causeway on a property in Gungal, about 300 kilometres (190 miles) north of Sydney, on Thursday night, was recovered Friday.

The woman’s 74-year-old husband, who was also in the vehicle, managed to get out.

Lismore, south of Murwillumbah near the NSW coast was hard hit, with the State Emergency Service (SES) warning of three-metre (10-feet) high flood levels in the town.

Earlier Friday, SES acting deputy commissioner Mark Morrow said he had fears for some missing residents from Lismore.

“As we start to go out and try to find people that made… calls overnight, there could be some very distressing news,” he told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

“There could be people overnight that perished in that flood, we don’t know at this stage.”

Other towns subject to evacuation orders include Tweed Heads, Kingscliff and Murwillumbah.

Farmer Peter Hannigan, whose property is just north of Lismore, said the deluge was the worst he had ever seen in more than 50 years in the area.

“I think a lot of people are going to have a lot of significant damage on the farms,” he told the ABC.

“It is the worst I have ever seen I have to admit.”

Further north in Queensland, the popular tourist city of Gold Coast and other nearby regions were also inundated by water. Upper Springbrook in the Gold Coast hinterland recorded 789 millimetres (31 inches) of water on Thursday, the Bureau of Meteorology said.

The weather bureau’s regional director Bruce Gunn said that across southeast Queensland, where Gold Coast is located, there had been widespread rainfall of 100-300 mm over the last two days.

“In terms of what happened in the last 24 or 48 hours, we have seen some pretty big rainfall totals,” he told Brisbane’s Courier Mail.

“There is still that strong risk around the Gold Coast.”

Focus has turned to the restoration of essential services such as water and electricity in the areas hit by Debbie, including Bowen, Mackay and the Whitsunday islands where some 50,000 people were still without power, officials said.

The military has mobilised 1,300 soldiers to help assess the full extent of damage and aid the clean-up, with helicopters and planes deploying to restore infrastructure and supply emergency food, water and fuel.</s>This handout photo from the Queensland Police Service taken on Thursday shows a bull shark washed up on a road near the town of Ayr (AFP photo)

AYR, Australia — Torrential rain hampered relief efforts onThursday after a powerful cyclone wreaked havoc in northeast Australia, with floods sparking emergency rescues as fed-up tourists began evacuating from resort islands.

Cyclone Debbie has pummelled Queensland state since crashing ashore as a category four storm on Tuesday between Bowen and Airlie Beach, ripping up trees, washing boats onto land and causing widespread damage.

It has been downgraded to a tropical low as it tracks southeast, but continues to pack damaging gusts and dump huge amounts of rain all the way down the eastern coast to Sydney.

Meteorologists said Queensland’s capital Brisbane was soaked by a month’s worth of rain in a single day, with the popular Sunshine Coast and Gold Coast areas also drenched.

Theme parks and beaches in the area were closed.

“We have a very, very large state here and this is a very, very big weather system that’s going to wreak havoc all the way down the coast,” Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said.

Emergency service crews, who took more than 3,000 calls for help, rescued dozens of people from floodwaters, with some plucked from roofs and tops of cars.

To reinforce the message that people should steer clear of floods, Queensland Fire and Emergency tweeted a picture of a shark washed up on a road near the town of Ayr.

“Think it’s safe to go back in the water? Think again! A bull shark washed up in Ayr. Stay out of floodwater,” they said.

Despite the ferocity of the storm, no deaths have been reported with only one significant injury — a man crushed by a collapsing wall. Before the cyclone hit, thousands of people moved to higher ground, out of the area or to safe refuges.

The wild weather has made the clean-up difficult as crews battle horrendous conditions to reach isolated communities and restore power.

Many roads remain flooded and towns cut off with hundreds of schools closed and authorities keeping a close eye on dams as water levels rise.

Tens of thousands of people were ordered to evacuate in parts of northern New South Wales state, which neighbours Queensland, with floodwaters rising as the ex-tropical cyclone tracked south before it is expected to move offshore on Friday.

Great Barrier Reef islands were among the worst hit.

Tourists and residents had been stranded for days on devastated Hamilton and Daydream islands, battered by terrifying winds of more than 260 kph at the height of the tempest.

Hundreds were evacuated on Thursday after struggling with no power and toilets not flushing as water ran low.

Jacqui McCullagh, who was staying on Hamilton Island, said the once-lush area was in a bad way.

“Boats washed ashore, houses without roofs, windows smashed in, trees snapped in half, gum trees torn out of the ground and those that do remain standing, are bare and lifeless,” she told the local Whitsunday Times.

The military has mobilised 1,300 soldiers to help assess the full extent of damage and aid the clean-up, with helicopters and planes deploying to restore infrastructure and supply emergency food, water and fuel.

Debbie has officially been declared a catastrophe by the Insurance Council of Australia, allowing claims from the disaster to be prioritised.

The economic cost to a region that relies heavily on tourism and farming is expected to be huge, with sugarcane crops hit hard and the cattle industry also impacted, officials said.

“Producers in the Whitsunday area were planting winter vegetables and they’re expected to suffer heavy crop losses as well as infrastructure, crop and irrigation equipment damage,” said Queensland’s Rural Economic Development Minister Bill Byrne.

“In the Mackay district, it’s understood that the cane fields at Proserpine, Mackay and Sarina have been flattened.”</s>A body was found in floodwaters caused by the deluge of Cyclone Debbie as it devastates Queensland and northern NSW.

Police would not confirm if the grim discovery in South Murwillumbah, on the Tweed River, was related to the floods the engulfed the town.

The area is so waterlogged that police can't even access the body to find out how the victim died or identify them.

Officers said they had only received reports of the body and not actually seen it themselves, but would try to get to it with rescue boats when the waters cleared.

The cyclone flooding has already exceeded the destruction of historic 1954 and 1974 floods in northern NSW.

There were fears more people would die as tens of thousands of residents were ordered to evacuate and 140,000 Queenslanders remained without power.

Northern New South Wales towns Lismore and Tweed were declared natural disaster zones on Friday after about 20,000 residents were forced to abandon homes and properties overnight.

Authorities were unsure how many people were awaiting rescue as some may not have had access to phones.

Queensland Police Commissioner Ian Stewart said efforts were continuing in Lamington National Park to find a bushwalker missing since Wednesday.

Flooding at Murwillumbah in northern NSW was deeper than the 1954 floods by Friday morning and is expected to exceed the 1974 floods by the early afternoon, Bureau of Meteorology said.

MULWILLUMBAH DRENCHED WITH MORE THAN 400MM OF RAIN

Up to 423 millimetres of rain fell in Murwillumbah within 24 hours, Bureau of Meteorology said on Thursday.

In parts of the northern rivers, 780mm fell within 48 hours in the aftermath of Cyclone Debbie.

An exhausted horse to shelter in the doorway of a home at Murwillumbah on Friday, according to a heartbreaking photo shared on Facebook.

'She is completely exhausted and we have spoken with the vet,' the daughter of the horse' s wrote in a comment on the post.

Homes and business are underwater in Lismore on Friday as potentially deadly conditions continue.

Sirens in the northern NSW town are warning residents to head to higher ground or get on their roofs after floodwater topped the protective levee.

Three metres of water is expected to drown the town and exceed floods seen in 2001 and 2005, NSW SES Deputy Commissioner Mark Morrow said.

Some of those who called for help overnight couldn't be reached, with the possibility of the 'distressing news' of deaths to come, he said.

'There could be people overnight that perished in that flood, we don't know at this stage,' he told ABC television on Friday morning.

'We expect this morning that as we start to go out and try to find people that made those calls overnight, there could be some very distressing news.'

Lismore's city's siren was activated at 4.15am on Friday warning residents to leave immediately.

'It's the first time it's been activated in 12 years,' Lismore mayor Isaac Smith told AAP on Friday.

Floodwaters topped the 10.6 metre level at 4.15am on Friday, with water levels predicted to reach 11.5 metres later in the day, Mr Smith said.

The SES is predicting the situation could worsen during the day with a high tide due at 1pm.

The wind is expected to pick up on Friday, compounding the dangers.

'We'll start to see trees coming down, potentially powerlines,' Mr Morrow said.

'That's the back-end associated with that cyclone in Queensland.

'We're far from out of this and I think the recovery efforts that are going to have to occur are going to be significant.'

The Lismore mayor said people had been caught off guard, and the city is in uncharted territory.

Mr Smith said the city's protective levee had never failed Lismore before.

'It's never happened, 12 years now the levee's stood there and kept out major and minor floods,' he said.

'A lot of people here are just a bit concerned about how it's going to go, but we honestly don't know,' he told ABC TV on Friday.

Mr Morrow said floodwaters would reach the roof of homes or even higher.

'A lot of people that are going to be displaced from their businesses or their homes.'

'About 130 flood rescues, people in cars, people trapped on roofs of houses. We'll get out there as soon as we can in daylight with aerial assets as well, helicopters and we'll try and find those people that made calls to us last night and help them this morning.'

He said about 6,000 people had left their homes.

Residents in the flood zone caused by ex-tropical cyclone Debbie have spent the night holed up in evacuation centres, as the system tracked south past Brisbane and into northern NSW.

River levels in some threatened communities were continuing to rise, even on a low tide, when they should be starting to drop.

'In some places further to the north, like Chinderah up around Tweed Heads where the water should be falling on a low tide now it's actually increasing. That's not a good sign for today.'

He said 13 evacuation orders remained current, affecting about 25,000 people in northern NSW towns.

People in Tweed Heads South and West, Chinderah, Kingscliff, Fingal Head and Bilambil have been told to leave.

Closer to the Queensland border, residents in 500 homes in the South Murwillumbah, Condong and Tumbulgum areas were also ordered to evacuate, with the Tweed River experiencing major flooding.

Authorities have lamented those ignoring advice and driving through floodwaters.

SES spokesman Brent Hunter those people were 'playing Russian roulette with their lives', Daily Telegraph reported.

A 'WALL OF WATER' HEADS FOR THE GOLD COAST

Gold Coast residents have been warned to prepare as wind gusts up to 100km/h are expected to lash the region this afternoon.

Meanwhile, residents of low-lying parts of Logan and the Gold Coast have been told to move to higher ground as a 'wall of water' heads towards the region.

The Gold Coast council has told residents near the northern suburbs of Stapylton and Jacobs Well to evacuate, and warned those who remain behind they risk being trapped by floodwaters for several days.

Police Commissioner Ian Stewart said people in the area should get out now.

'Floodwaters are approaching, and they are putting out SMS alerts to people in those areas, asking people to go to higher ground, to evacuate to friends and family,' he said.

'They are urgent alerts and we have asked the community to take them seriously.

Residents in low-lying areas around Beenleigh have also been told to get out as the Albert River continues to rise towards a possible 130-year record level.

The Bureau of Meteorology says the river level may reach around 8.0 metres in the areas on Friday afternoon, near the 8.1 metre record level set in 1887.

Logan Mayor Luke Smith told the Courier Mail a 'wall of water' was heading for the area from the Scenic Rim region.

'We're in for a significant inundation of major flooding. It's just about waiting to see where all the water happens to go.'

Floodwaters are expected to peak around midday today in both areas.

Bureau of Meteorology regional director Bruce Gunn said rainfall totals across the southeast had been extraordinary, with falls of more than 800mm in the Gold Coast hinterland in 48 hours.

The Beaudesert area has already been beset by record floodwaters after being pounded by heavy rain from ex-cyclone Debbie.

BOM has also warned of possible minor flooding along the Brisbane River at the Brisbane CBD overnight on Friday and on Saturday.

There are also concerns about possible flooding in Rockhampton next week as water makes its way down from rivers upstream.

AUTHORITIES HIT OUT AT 'FOOLISH' BEHAVIOUR DURING FLOODING

Meanwhile, State Disaster Coordinator Stephan Gollschewski has hit out at 'foolish and quite stupid behaviour' from some during the floods

In one case a man was charged with drink-driving after driving into flood waters with his partner and two young children west of Brisbane.

And on Thursday a boy was swept away after tying his boogie board to a bridge so he could surf a torrent of water coming down a creek. He was lucky to survive and managed to swim to safety.

All schools in southeast Queensland remain closed for the second consecutive day but the worst of the weather has passed over the Brisbane area, where the sun has come out.

Meanwhile, Mr Gollschewski said the focus in north Queensland, where Cyclone Debbie crossed the coast as a category four storm on Tuesday, had switched to restoring essential services such as communication and power networks, to aid the recovery effort there.

Queensland Fire and Emergency Services Commissioner Katarina Carroll said the SES had dealt with about 5600 calls for help since the cyclone disaster began earlier this week.

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said around 140,000 households were without powers across the southeast and north Queensland.

More than 90,000 homes are currently without power in the southeast and a further 50,000 in the Bowen, Mackay and Whitsunday regions.

Some will be without power for days.

She said 630 power lines were affected by Thursday's extreme weather in Queensland's southeast.

The police commissioner also said efforts were continuing in the Lamington National Park, near the Queensland-NSW border, to find a bushwalker missing since Wednesday.

'He remains unaccounted for. You can just imagine what the conditions are like are there ... It would be a very treacherous situation,' Mr Stewart said.

Queensland Fire and Emergency Services Deputy Commissioner Mike Wassing said the state's flood emergency wasn't over, particularly for communities near the NSW border.

'Our greatest area of concern this morning for people living in the areas of Beenleigh, Waterford, Woodend and Beaudesert,' he told ABC television.

'We currently got major flood warnings for the Albert River and the Logan River.'

He described the situation as 'very serious'.

'It is very serious, it's a major flood warning. If you're in low-lying areas, safely move to high grounds.'

Swift water rescue firefighters had saved the lives of 85 people trapped in floodwaters.

Mr Wassing confirmed there had been 'a number of rescues and continue to have as we speak'.

At 1am Friday, Queensland police urged residents of Beaudesert in southeast Queensland to warn neighbours, secure belongings and move to higher ground as it was hit by record flooding and the Logan River continued to rise.

Nine News reported some in Beaudesert had to seek refuge on the roof of their cars as the waters rose.

The Logan River in the town was at 13.91 metres early Friday morning, equivalent to the level seen in the town's record 1991 flood and the river is not expected to peak until 7am (AEST).

Weatherzone meteorologist Brett Dutshke told Daily Mail Australia Lismore and other areas have been hit with the most rain since the floods of 1974.

There is very little rain expected to come but emergency services are warning the danger is not over.

Cattle farmers have had massive livestock losses in central Queensland,

'Beef producers in the Clarke Creek and Lotus Creek region on the old highway between Mackay and Rockhampton were particularly hard hit with a metre of rain falling in just over 24 hours,' AgForce CEO Charles Burke said.

He said farmers were still assessing the damage.

'Farming families in the region have never seen water levels like it, and we've had reports of cattle and horses being washed away, families sitting on kitchen tables to stay safe and major damage to sheds and other structures, while all the local bridges and crossings have been completely smashed.

'It's extremely difficult to get in touch with producers in all the different affected areas with many properties isolated by floodwaters, power supplies cut and phone lines still down.'

The first guests have been evacuated from the Whitsunday islands resorts smashed by Cyclone Debbie but thousands remain stranded on Hamilton Island.

Daydream Island is expected to be closed for a month as further assessments of the extensive damage continue.

All guests and more than 100 staff have been evacuated from Daydream after the category four storm belted the region but many more remain stuck at other resorts.

The Australian Defence Force delivered food, fuel and water to Daydream Island earlier on Thursday, while local ferries were organised to shuttle guests back to the mainland.

The 3,000 people stranded on nearby Hamilton Island, which was lashed with the strongest recorded winds on Thursday at 263 km/h, face a longer wait to reach the mainland.

Twelve flights have been scheduled between Hamilton Island and Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne.

Checking in could take up to 25 minutes per passenger, a statement on the Hamilton Island website said.

'We have been advised airlines will be bringing up large volumes of staff to assist with this process,' the statement said.

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and Opposition Leader Bill Shorten visited Bowen in the Whitsunday region on Thursday morning, making financial aid available immediately to the local council to start rebuilding infrastructure.

A emergency services source told AAP South Molle Island, to the northwest of Hamilton Island, had been 'totally devastated' but no one was there when Debbie struck.

Nearby Hayman Island has also suffered significant damage preventing emergency services personnel landing on Wednesday.

Ms 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.
Consequences of heavy rain from Cyclone Debbie kill at least three people and force 20,000 others to leave their homes in New South Wales and Queensland.