The Australian city of Rockhampton is bracing itself as devastating flood waters are expected to reach their highest levels in the next 12-18 hours.
Military aircraft are rushing to get supplies to residents, to whom there is only one land access route left.
Police are urging people to stay out of the snake-infested waters, that have claimed the lives of three people.
In other areas of Queensland, residents are beginning the recovery process, while others prepare for fresh floods.
More than 20 towns across a huge swathe of Queensland have been cut off or flooded, and more than 200,000 people affected.
In the southern town of St George, residents are on heightened alert after the weather bureau predicted a peak that would inundate 80% of the town.
Meanwhile in Emerald, locals have begun sifting through their flood-damaged belongings, as flood waters recede from the Nogoa River that flooded more than 1,000 houses.
The flood crisis has also had a huge impact on the region's coal industry.
Premier Anna Bligh said 75% of operations have been halted at the state's coal fields, which supply just under half of the world's coking coal needed in steel manufacturing. BBC News
