"I want to assure the community that we're doing everything we can do keep them safe", he said. "We'll be all right".
The Queensland Fire and Emergency Service carried out 18 rescue operations in the previous 24 hours, according to the agency's commissioner, Katarina Carroll, reported ABC.
Cars and livestock have been swept away over a large area around the coastal city of Townsville.
Townsville has been brought to a standstill by severe flooding after an all-time record rainfall, the premier of Queensland, Annastacia Palaszczuk, said Saturday. "We were keeping our eye out under the house to see if it would come back again", she said.
"With that we expect to see more episodes of that real intense heavy rainfall that could lead to flash flooding".
Authorities have faced some criticism for deciding not to impose a forced evacuation on the Townsville area after more than 1,000 calls for help were received. About 1000 people have taken refuge in those centres.
Two men are feared missing near floodwaters as the deluge that's caused catastrophic flooding in Townsville shows signs of easing.
Mayor Jenny Hill said it was impossible to provide complete certainty about rainfall levels and urged residents to follow directions from emergency services.
"Residents still in their homes in these suburbs should move to the highest ground in their dwelling".
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The army is helping to protect homes with sandbags.
"You can't say you weren't warned that something would happen".
"Fundamentally we've tried to get the message out there and into the night we knew some people may not have heeded those warnings".
"Some people thought that they could get through this. and that hasn't been the case". "Unprecedented areas of flooding will occur in Townsville", a statement said, adding that there was a "risk to life and property".
The BoM warned that risky "high velocity flows" were likely along the Ross River in the wake of the release.
The Bureau of Meteorology late Sunday issued a "major flood warning", announcing that spillway gates at the Ross River dam had been opened to their maximum setting and a rapid rise in the water level was predicted to follow. One image of a crocodile roaming the streets has been shared over 20,000 times on Facebook.
A severe weather warning covers communities from Mackay, on the coast, north to Ingham, and right out west, nearly as far as the Northern Territory border.
Townsville has bought greater than a metre of rain in only a week, which is bigger than 20 cases the common for the time of yr - beating the earlier story situation in 1998, in what turned known because the Night of Noah.
Evacuations were posted in 20 suburbs of the coastal city as authorities were forced to fully open the Ross River floodgates with the river at almost 250 percent capacity, The New York Times reported. Elsewhere, two police officers were stuck clinging to trees for half an hour after their auto was washed away by floodwaters, while residents reported snakes and crocodiles roaming the streets.
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