Two people are missing in severe floods swamping the Queensland city of Townsville.
For around eight days, monsoonal downpours in the region have contributed to one of the worst floods in the city's history.
Australian 7 News correspondent Bianca Stone joined The AM Show this morning to talk about the devastation that the flood is causing for thousands of families.
"Townsville is a disaster zone really; there are just streets and streets of devastation."
She said there have been no reported deaths, but there is concern for the safety of two men, 21 and 23, who have been reported missing.
"There's no indication that they were in the water but police are involved and looking for the men."
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"In the past eight or nine days there has been a phenomenal amount of rain," she said, "more than one metre of rain has fallen in the region."
Authorities opened the Ross River dam gates on Sunday night, pouring water into the town at a rate of 200,000 cubic metres per second, after the dam reached 250 percent of its safe capacity.
The Australian Weather Bureau warns that the rain is not over for the region. Downpours are forecast to move south for a short while, then bounce back up again and dump another few hundred millimetres of rain over the area.
"The rain is continuing to fall, and fall in an area just north of us, at Bluewater, which is about 40 minutes north.
"Just in the last couple of hours there has been a man rescued from the roof of his car in that Bluewater area."
Ms Stone said there was still risk to some homes that have stayed clear of the water so far, and the number of houses forecast to be impacted by the flooding is 20,000 - a quarter of the city's total homes.
She said emergency services in the area have been working tirelessly to evacuate people who became trapped in their houses.
"It is utter devastation, there is water ranging from just a couple of feet up to the roofs of the homes."
Newshub.
