Sunshine Coast clean-up to cost millions

Flash flooding on the Sunshine Coast. Photo / Courier Mail

The damage bill from several days of wild storms and flooding on the Sunshine Coast is estimated to run into the millions.

The aftermath includes a dramatic lane-wide sinkhole on an arterial road at Coolum, which could take a month to repair.

Sunshine Coast Mayor Bob Abbott says the council has received disaster assistance funding after the storms, which first lashed Cooroy last week and continued across the region over the weekend.

Northern areas of the coast received more than 300mm of rain over the weekend.

Businesses and residents at Pomona and Cooroy were worst effected, Mr Abbott says.

"There needs to be an inspection of infrastructure in the region fairly quickly," he told AAP on Monday.

"We haven't got a figure yet but it will be in the millions of dollars."

Sunshine Coast traffic was in chaos on Monday when the busy David Low Way between Coolum and the Peregian roundabout was closed.

A section of the road about four metres long and more than two metres deep collapsed because of erosion on Sunday night.

Mr Abbott says the council is considering whether a bypass can be hurriedly built to service traffic on that section.

"There is alternative access out along the Sunshine Coast motorway but it's quite congested already so there will be some extensive problems there.

"The project could be up to four weeks but they are trying to work on a bypass during construction."

Floodwaters have cut the Bruce Highway to most vehicles at Lethebrook, near Proserpine, in north Queensland. Only four wheel drives and trucks are permitted to cross.

Further south, motorists were stranded either side of Gympie on the weekend after torrential rain caused the Mary River to peak at 15.44 metres. Five businesses were also inundated.

The highway was open at Gympie on Monday, say police.

Even though the Mary River is slowly receding there is still some inconvenience with a number of road closures in and around Gympie.

Police say there were no further emergency calls on Sunday and residents were on Monday cleaning up after the weekend's flooding.

- AAP