Storms batter Queensland's Gold Coast

Areas of northern New South Wales are inundated with floodwaters. Photo / Getty Images

Huge seas have continued to batter the southeast coast of Queensland overnight, displacing tonnes of sand on the Gold Coast's famous beaches.

In one on-the-water incident, several SES volunteers were injured when their flood rescue boats struck trouble in the turbulent mouth of the Tweed River early yesterday.

Two crews had been on patrol assessing flood dangers about 1.20am when their boats were swept out through the treacherous Tweed bar.

Five volunteers were taken to hospital with injuries ranging from broken ribs to head wounds.

One of the boats was washed up on Burleigh beach mid-morning.

The clean-up operation on the famous stretch of coast is expected to take weeks.

Beachside paths and fences were ruined on the Gold Coast, with some fences protecting sand dune areas falling in to the sea as the huge swells pounded beaches.

A severe weather warning remains current for abnormally high tides and dangerous surf for the southeast Queensland coast and Fraser Island, but conditions are expected to improve on today.

The Bureau of Meteorology says the low pressure system responsible for the disastrous flooding in southern Queensland and north eastern NSW is now well east of the coast and moving further away.

A combination of the low and a strong high pressure system in the southern Tasman Sea whipped up big waves along the coast on Sunday, but these were forecast to ease on Monday.

A Department of Emergency Services spokeswoman said authorities would keep a close watch on last night's high tide, but didn't expect it to reach the levels of the night before, which resulted in some low-lying areas of the Gold Coast being inundated.

Brisbane commuter services will also be affected today.

Maritime Safety Queensland has advised Brisbane City Council there is too much large floating debris in the river.

Meanwhile, further south, a timely break in the weather has allowed many evacuees from flood-ravaged northern NSW to return home, but thousands more remain isolated.

NSW Premier Nathan Rees toured the devastated flood zone yesterday, appointing former police commissioner Ken Moroney to head recovery operations.

He said Mr Moroney would be based in northern NSW, where flood warnings remain current for nine rivers, although the rain has eased substantially.

The state government has declared a natural disaster area covering the Kempsey, Coffs Harbour, Bellingen, Nambucca, Port Macquarie-Hastings, Tweed, Byron, Ballina, Lismore, Kyogle, Richmond Valley and Clarence Valley areas.

Mr Rees said in a statement the third major flood to swamp the mid-north coast this year had compounded the damage inflicted by those in February and April.

"We are working with local government, industry groups and welfare agencies to establish one-stop-shop disaster recovery centres to provide co-ordinated assistance to people in need, "he said.

Residents at Lismore and Grafton have been given the all-clear to return home but while the water that swamped Kempsey's CBD is receding, the evacuation order there remains in place.

An estimated 16,700 people have been evacuated and up to 22,000 have been isolated in the floods, which also claimed the life of a 70-year-old man found near his submerged car south of Coffs Harbour on Friday.

- AAP, AGENCIES