Pioneer River flooding in Mackay after tropical cyclone Debbie hit the north Queensland. Photo/AAP
Pioneer River flooding in Mackay after tropical cyclone Debbie hit the north Queensland. Photo/AAP
Military helicopters have airlifted 200 tourists and staff from Daydream Island to safety as emergency crews try to rescue 50 people trapped by floodwaters near cyclone-battered Mackay.
Rescue efforts are underway to reach 11 people near Eton in the Pioneer Valley, southwest of the city today, according to Daily Mail.
And about 40 people are also awaiting rescue in the Homebush area, just outside Mackay, with swift water crews working to move them from the West Leagues Club.
Meanwhile, defence force personnel have flown to the tropical resort Daydream Island with fuel, food and water supplies as they airlifted 200 people to safety.
Tourists and staff on Hamilton Island are being evacuated after the Whitsunday island's airstrip reopened following Cyclone Debbie.
A bull shark stranded on bank after being swept by floodwaters in Burdekin in the state's north. Photo/Facebook/WIN News Townsville
Earlier today, a heavily pregnant woman was rescued from a house in Homebush and taken to the Eton rural fire shed.
Queensland Fire and Emergency Services Commissioner Katarina Carroll said the woman has since been taken by helicopter to West Leagues Club.
She said there had been 38 water rescue incidents overnight.
"We have some 12 incidents currently taking place that we have got crews on the ground."
She asked stranded people to be patient.
"We are definitely getting to you. We know where you are. We have got the helicopters working in that area, as well as swift water rescue and SES. Please be patient with us, we will get to you as soon as humanly possible."
Palm St Resident Cathy Seiver, her dogs, assisted out of her street by QFES Swift water Rescue team members in Mackay on Wednesday. Photo/AAP
She said some people had had to scramble onto the roofs of homes and cars to escape flood waters.
"From about 9pm onwards, there was flash flooding particularly in that area, so we did have people up on the top level of their houses, reports of people on the roofs of their houses and roofs of their cars," she said.
"So it was an extremely difficult period of time, from about 9 o'clock, to 2am, 3am, this morning ... but we believe everyone in that area is safe.
"We haven't got reports of missing people at the moment, so we are quite confident that everyone is safe at this stage and accounted for."
Deputy Commissioner Steve Gollschewski said it was hard to know how much worse the weather crisis was going to get, with the southeast corner now braced for flash flooding from the former cyclone.
"The problem is we don't know. We saw what happened in the Mackay area last night. We had hoped that we had seen the last of Tropical Cyclone Debbie," he said.
