 I've got the world record on it I'm sorry folks we've got a number of significant incidents and we'll take you through them but it has the meeting is continuing so we'll brief you on what we can now the flood crisis in Queensland has deepened seriously over the past several hours we now have serious flooding returned to the southwest of our state and returned with a vengeance if I can take you through some of the incidents that we're managing overnight we're now seeing the waters peaking in the town of Dolby higher than they did in the previous event in Dolby two evacuation centres have been set up in the last few hours and we now have 165 people out of their homes and in evacuation centres in the town of Dolby similarly in Chinchilla we now have the river rising very quickly and we anticipate it will be at seven metres by early tomorrow morning by way of contrast on the 28th of December it peaked at 7.25 it will continue to rise above seven metres throughout the rest of tomorrow again evacuations are undergoing sorry evacuations are occurring in Chinchilla at the moment 30 homes have already been evacuated these are the same 30 homes that were evacuated some 10 or 11 days ago and there are further evacuations occurring the town of Condomine is now on serious watch the river at Condomine is also rising very quickly and is now at about nine metres but models are showing that it could by the end of this week get to the 14 and 15 metre mark which is the point at which we triggered evacuation of the whole town some eight or nine days ago so across Dolby Chinchilla and Condomine and we also have reports tonight that we're monitoring very closely at Meandara we're seeing new peaks and new flood records being set overnight and evacuations occurring but by far the most critical incident that we are managing this evening is the incident that started this afternoon in Toowoomba and has been making its way with a very large body of water down the Toowoomba range and into the Lockyer Valley what we saw in Toowoomba was the water rise at lightning speed mother nature has unleashed something shocking out of the Toowoomba region and we've seen it move very quickly down the range the river in Gatton this afternoon over the course of the afternoon has risen nine metres I can confirm tragically that we have now got confirmations of four deaths arising out of this incident a woman and a male child deceased in the Toowoomba CBD with no other missing persons reported at this stage in Toowoomba at the sorry in the Toowoomba CBD at Murphy's Creek in Toowoomba we have confirmed the death of one man and a male child both of whom believed to have been washed away in or from a house we are unable to reach some 30 people in the town of Grantham they have all gathered together in a primary school at Grantham they are completely isolated by fast-moving floodwaters we have unconfirmed reports out of Grantham that has us holding very grave fears for the safety of a number of people in the Grantham township the waters however are starting to recede at Grantham and emergency workers are trying to get into that town tonight to make sure those people are safe and to confirm some of those reports we also have further reports total reports of another six people missing in and around the Withcott area we believe that we're looking for at least three young pedestrians and two vehicles that were seen to be washed away we also have numerous people who have been stranded on rooftops as the waters moved in very quickly there have to date been 43 rescues of people from rooftops in the Withcott Valley by helicopter from EMQ helicopters unfortunately heavy fog and weather have now grounded those helicopters but we do have one helicopter with night vision on standby ready to go in if we see any clearance in that weather at any point overnight we do believe we have still have a large number of people stranded on those rooftops I should say that as fast as that water has been moving up as it's moving way down the valley it is also starting to see those waters go down so we do hold very grave concerns for still a number of people stranded on rooftops although there have been 43 very dramatic rooftop rescues by helicopter and emergency services personnel in the last few hours we have now set up a major incident room here in the Brisbane CBD in relation to this issue I should say we also have a number of roads cut the Warrigo Highway cut in a number of places this will mean and we'll have to reassess it tomorrow but with the Bruce Highway cut and the Western Route now cut we will see significant supply issues into central and northern Queensland so in total all possible resources including ADF resources will be activated at first light tomorrow to begin further search and rescue we will be getting out at first light to continue the search for those who have been notified as missing and to continue the rescue efforts for those who have been stranded on rooftops what we have here in Queensland tonight is a very grim and desperate situation there are many Queenslanders tonight in critical and dire circumstances emergency workers out facing risky situations and many people facing a very terrifying night I think we can all say that our thoughts are with them over the coming hours and we pray and hope that they'll be safe when first light comes tomorrow morning I'll invite the Commissioner of Police to make some comments this is now a very large police operation there are many emergency services personnel deployed right across the Southwest and into the Lockyer Valley region as I said a desperate and grim situation being managed tonight by our emergency people thank you Premier the Premier has summed that up comprehensively this has been a terrible day terrible day early reports would indicate that what hit Tuomba perhaps best be described as an inland instance and armed with a massive water water that has gone straight down through the through the Lockyer Valley and as the Premier said we have whilst we have confirmed advice for people deceased we have grave concerns for the safety of others at Grantham and at Withcott we're doing all we can tonight but again as the Premier indicated we won't have a full appreciation of this until at least tomorrow happy to take any questions you have it's a very difficult set of circumstances the weather's atrocious communications are bad and they are cut off what we believe is that 30 people are together in the primary school we think that about another dozen or so are at a private residence but that's yet to be confirmed we're not in a position yet to know precise numbers or identities of people missing but the circumstances are such that we have grave concerns for the safety of people in the Grantham area generally clearly as the Commissioner said all indications at this stage are is that the event that started in Tuomba can only be described as a complete freak of nature an extraordinary deluge that almost came out of nowhere in an otherwise very heavy rainfall deluge obviously we'll be working with the Weather Bureau to understand this event more carefully tomorrow but right now we are concerned for the safety of many people in this area who are stranded in desperate and dangerous circumstances and for our emergency staff and police who are out at the front line in some of the most unsafe conditions this is without doubt our darkest hour of the last fortnight very difficult yes but we're doing all we can in that regard and certainly in all of those places that the Premier mentioned can I say to you that whether that's Chinchilla me and Dara conomine dole with cot Grantham Gatton Tuomba itself everything possible is being done tonight to you know I meant for example in Tuomba a number of vehicles were swept away and many of you if not all of you would have seen the footage and I doubt if in the history of Tuomba anything like that has ever happened in Tuomba it's just quite extraordinary so every vehicle that was swept away and no matter what the circumstances of where that vehicle is we're endeavouring to to get into those vehicles and to see if there's anyone that's trapped inside so we're doing all we can tonight but it's just impossible to complete this tonight and only tomorrow do we hope that we'll know the full extent of this in that area as the premier indicated fortunately it's dropping almost as rapidly as it accelerated away in the first place but we're tracking the movement at the moment it's heading towards Lowood in that area and will ultimately join up with the Brisbane River we think in somewhere between roughly six and 12 hours time then about 12 hours after that we think it'll probably reach Moggill and 12 hours after that Brisbane the Bureau of Meteorology are working with us to do modeling in terms of what that just is likely to mean and we hope to have those results in the next three or four hours. Effectively what we're seeing is a wall of water in some places up to eight meters at a time coming down that valley so as it moves through it's the water's dropping reasonably quickly behind it but it's leaving a trail of destruction and leaving people isolated this will affect the modeling that I talked about this afternoon for both Ipswich and Brisbane more likely implications for Brisbane but that is still being worked through as we said we've the meeting tonight has been connecting with all of the local disaster committees that have now activated or reactivated in every one of these areas there is a disaster coordination centre been established into Wumba and a major police incident room here in Brisbane to manage this yes we're seeing significant new rainfalls if you look at the bomb site you'll see a very significant storm cell that's moving across so the rescue operations are also being hampered by continued heavy rainfall what we're also seeing is in Chinchilla, Dolby and Condomine further rain that's complicating the rise of those rivers. Premier are you confident that without resources in Queensland that we can cope with a disaster of this scale or is it that they're going to get caught in the morning for other states to help out here? We have deployed every possible asset into the valley this evening what is hampering operations is now the weather and further resources would not change that we will we've already called on helicopters from Northern New South Wales and they are stationed here ready to take off at first light the scale of what is unfolding in the Lockyer Valley and again in the Southwest will test our resources and we have plenty of offers of help from other states and we'll certainly call on those as we need them I'll be out in these areas as quickly as possible tomorrow but we'll just have to see what first light brings and we certainly won't be doing anything that will hamper rescue operations that will be our first priority no sorry we have 30 people isolated at Grantham but in addition to that we have reports six missing persons that we are continuing to search for and we have four confirmed deaths but as I said in that Grantham area while we know there are 30 people we also have had some unconfirmed reports potentially of other missing people so we hold very grave concerns the communications in there are almost non-existent so we're doing our best to get people in there tonight and we hope to be able to reach those people and get a better assessment of where the condition they're in now whether there's injuries and whether there are any other safety concerns now we'll continue to well at this stage we are continuing to plan releases over the next few days that's absolutely critical to managing the water that's coming into the Wyvernhoe catchment obviously the modelers will have to look at what the implications of this new event are and what that might mean for the release strategy but I think certainly my understanding is that if we started to close the gates we'd certainly see the dam rich critical spillover spill all right well thank you for covering this and as soon as we're able to we'll keep you advised in terms of the latest developments that may be during the course of the night but it might not be possible until you know daybreak in the morning just one last one you were saying that six are missing is there a concern that they may be that they don't want to go higher? Yes yes and I think that's what we're trying to indicate the six that are missing are the six definitively known that we've had reported to us that are missing that's one person definitively at Grantham and five at Withcott and their minimum numbers their absolute minimum numbers and as the Premier indicated there are other less specific reports that causes to have grave fears and concerns for people at Grantham particularly but we're not in a position to give detail partly because they've been isolated we can't get a full-long official report that we can confirm for you but we've certainly had some unconfirmed reports of further missing people in their Grantham area thank you