Three people have died in floodwaters and hundreds of Gympie residents have been told to evacuate as an extreme weather system continues to dump flooding rain across south-east Queensland.
SES volunteer Merryl Dray, 62, died overnight while responding to a call for assistance in Coolana, north-west of Ipswich, Queensland Fire and Emergency Services (QFES) said.
QFES Commissioner Greg Leach paid tribute to Ms Dray, saying she was passionate about helping her community and had volunteered more than 520 hours of her time over the last four and a half years.
Three other SES personnel were rescued from the floodwater when the vehicle they were travelling in was swept off the road.
In inner Brisbane, a 55-year-old Camp Hill man's body was recovered from floodwaters at Stones Corner.
Police were called to Gladys Street about 1:30am and found the man dead a short time later.
A 37-year-old man became stranded on Tin Can Bay Road, between Ross Road and Webster Road at Goomboorian near Gympie before his vehicle was washed away on Friday.
His body was recovered by police about 3:20pm.
Police will in the morning continue the search for a missing yachtsman in his 70s who fell overboard from his vessel in the Brisbane River near the mouth of Breakfast Creek.
Two more people died in floodwater on Thursday.
Brisbane Lord Mayor Adrian Schrinner warned overnight flows from the upper catchment of the Brisbane River could combine with possible Wivenhoe Dam releases on Sunday morning.
Council modelling shows that could impact several thousand properties in areas including Bulimba, Hamilton, Milton, New Farm, Newstead, Windsor and Yeronga.
Mr Schrinner tweeted that figure is only an estimate and included situations where water enters a residential yard — not necessarily a home.
He said people in low-lying areas should be prepared.
Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said all of south-east Queensland's catchments were being inundated.
She said while rain was expected to ease later on Saturday, rain would continue until Sunday afternoon.
The main area of concern is Gympie, where Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) figures show the Mary River at 22.06 metres.
That puts the flood level higher than the 1999 peak of 21.92 metres and just above the 1898 peak of 22 metres, making it the second-highest on record and worst there since the 1880s.
"We don't want people trapped in the evening," Ms Palaszczuk said on Saturday afternoon.
"We will be issuing some evacuation alerts, especially for around 700 residents in the Gympie area.
"If we don't do this now, people will become isolated and trapped."
She said there were 1,000 road closures across south-east Queensland and reminded motorists to stay off flooded roads.
The Premier said the SES has performed 1,900 call outs and there had been more than 90 swift water rescues.
Only one runway at Brisbane Airport is operational because the other is experiencing localised flooding.
All beaches on the Gold Coast and Sunshine Coast remain closed.
Evacuation centres have been set up for residents of Gympie, in the Moreton Bay region and on the Sunshine Coast.
'Really phenomenal rainfall' to continue into tomorrow
Emergency alerts also remain current for the Sunshine Coast, the Scenic Rim, Toowoomba, Lockyer Valley, North Burnett, Moreton Bay and Maryborough council areas.
BOM forecaster Harry Clark said parts of the northern suburbs of Brisbane and southern Sunshine Coast have received up to 170mm in an hour, on top of all the rain that has fallen in recent days.
He warned there could be damaging wind gusts of up to 90 kilometres per hour associated with the storms in the region.
Major flood warnings have been issued for many major rivers in the region in Mary River, Mooloolah River, Noosa River, Maroochy River, Upper Brisbane River and Bremer River.
"The issue with this system is that it has stalled for the last 24 to 48 hours to the west of us," Mr Clark told ABC Radio.
"There was 700mm of rain recorded at Mt Glorious last night and in excess of 1,000mm near Pomona over the last seven days.
"There's been some really phenomenal rainfall and unfortunately another 24 hours of this to come."
But Mr Clark said the system generating the rainfall would "start to slip southwards" from midday tomorrow or in the afternoon.
"Brisbane City is looking at minor flooding at the moment but that is very dependent on how much rain we get," Mr Clark said.
Major flood warnings are also in place at Maryborough, with concerns the Mary River may exceed the peak recorded in flooding last month.
South-west of Brisbane, conditions are expected to worsen throughout Saturday, particularly around Canungra and Beaudesert in the Scenic Rim.
Scenic Rim Regional Council Mayor Greg Christensen said the river at Beaudesert was likely to rise up to 9 metres but that level could rise further with continued rainfall.
QFES commander of State Operations Brad Commens said rescue services responded to more than 1,800 calls for help yesterday, including more than 130 swiftwater rescues.
"We've had so many rescues – we've had multiple rescues from Grantham, Helidon, Woodford, Brisbane, Kogan, Forest Hill, Coolana, I could go on – just so many rescues," he said.
"Predominantly, a lot of these rescues are people driving into floodwater, thinking they can get across."
"We just implore people do not drive through floodwaters – even four to six inches of water can wash a car off a road if it's moving."
