Surging from weeks of heavy rains which have inundated Australia's northeast, the river was a churning mess of debris, snatching all in its path, as shocked bystanders looked on.

David Moore's "aptly" named waterfront cafe "Drift", a well-known city landmark, lost its trendy pontoon bar to the swirling tides -- tables, grand piano and all -- before the entire structure sank into the river.

"It's sickening, with regards to how quickly it's flowing. It's sickening with regards to what's coming down the river," a "numb" Moore told AFP.

"There's livestock, there's furniture, there's houses -- it's incredible.

"To look at the devastation of a modern city like this is just incredible, and it's surreal. It's such a beautiful day today, it's just surreal."

Ferry stops and jetties were swept from their moorings, and one pontoon smashed into a bridge with a boat still on top.

Officials were preparing to scuttle the Island Party Boat and the Moggill ferry, both which were badly damaged and coming loose from their moorings, amid fears they could become "torpedos" which would bash their way down the river.

"It's quite unbelievable. I've never seen the river flow this much. It's scary," said legal secretary Bianca Faulk, as she watched the destruction.

"I saw a caravan, a houseboat and about 40 pontoons go past on the river," she said. "Normally the river, you can't even see its current. But now it's wild and all the bikeways (flanking the river) are under."

The city's well-known Eagle Street Pier precinct was completely under water and the central business area was deserted as the mucky waters welled up through stormwater drains and filled the blacked-out streets.

Evacuation alarms echoed through the eerie quiet, as office buildings closed and workers stayed at home, while buses and most train services ground to a halt. Residents were urged to stockpile water in case treatment plants were damaged, and raw sewage ran from inundated homes into the torrent.

Sandbags were being made at the city's low-security prison, and some residents had taken to local golf courses to fill bags for their homes.

Meanwhile the city's art gallery raced to move precious works to upper levels and the iconic XXXX brewery shut its doors due to flooding drains.

The downtown, 52,500-seat Suncorp Stadium, home to the Brisbane Broncos rugby league team, resembled a giant swimming pool, with the waters sparking a small electrical explosion.

Supermarket shelves had been emptied by panic buyers and blackouts were compounding anxiety and difficulties for house-bound residents.

More than 20,000 homes are expected to be hit as the river surges towards a peak early Thursday, and thousands of residents fled their homes for evacuation centres or sought refuge with friends on higher ground.

"We are expecting the worst and hoping for the best," said waiter Yoan Mlodorzeniec, readying sandbags at the city's Liquorish bistro, a few blocks back from the river.

Moore added: "Suburb by suburb is going under, they're pulling people out, and you're sitting here in disbelief, because it's a beautiful sunny day. To see the devastation of it is just shocking."

earlier related report
Floods cost to Australia 'higher than Katrina'
Sydney (AFP) Jan 12, 2011 - Australia's devastating floods could slice more than Aus$10 billion ($10 billion) off GDP and hammer the economy worse than Hurricane Katrina affected the United States, economists said Wednesday.

Experts said the floods, which have turned most of the mining and Great Barrier Reef state of Queensland into a disaster zone, could cut growth by one percentage point in the near term, including lost exports and infrastructure damage.

"Clearly the cost is going to be substantial," said Stephen Walters, chief economist at investment bank JP Morgan, adding that the deluge could shave as much as one percent off GDP -- or up to Aus$13 billion -- in early 2011.

But he said the economy, currently riding a resources boom driven by Asian demand, would likely recover in the second half of 2011 on the back of economic activity related to rebuilding homes, businesses and infrastructure.

"The profile for GDP is going to be... a dip near-term, or at least much weaker growth, not necessarily negative -- but quite a bit stronger in the second half and into 2012," he told AFP.

An analysis released by Westpac said GDP in the quarter to March could be cut by one percent, but the annual fall would translate to about 0.3 percent. Australia's economy is currently tracking annual growth of 2.7 percent.

John Rolfe, an economist with Queensland Central University, said in the short-term the floods would hit coal and primary produce exports but the impact would drag on the economy for several years.

"In the longer term, the economy is going to suffer because of the amount of ongoing disruption to production, mostly because of the additional expenditure -- both private and public expenditure -- to fix infrastructure."

"So essentially investment for the next two or three years is going to be going into repairs instead of into new productivity."

Rolfe said growth would have to be revised down, but only slightly to between 0.1 and 0.3 percent.

But he said the floods in Queensland, which produces half of the world's coking coal and is a major tourist destination, would be proportionally greater than the economic impact of Hurricane Katrina.

"I think the floods in Australia will have a much bigger proportional impact on the economy," he said, declining to comment on whether the costs of the Queensland floods would be greater at an absolute level.

US officials said in 2005 that Hurricanes Katrina and Rita that year caused $70-130 billion in property damage and would have a sharp but short-lived impact on the overall economy.

Rolfe said the difference in Queensland was serious losses in mining and farming production, as well as tourism in a state which is home to the famous Great Barrier Reef and pristine beaches.

The Queensland Tourism Industry Council, which earlier indicated that tourism losses from the floods could reach Aus$100 million, has now indicated that the impact will be even more severe as the floodwaters threaten Brisbane.

Economist Warwick McKibbin, who also sits on the board of the central Reserve Bank of Australia, said it was too soon to predict the economic impact but it would be greater than simply the loss of exports.

"I have no idea of what the costs will be but it's not just the exports," he told AFP. "It's going to be a lot bigger than people think. It's going to be a lot bigger than just the cost of the damage."

Queensland Treasurer Andrew Fraser said it was not yet possible to say how much the worst floods in more than a century would cost, but that they were "a real blow to the Queensland economy".

"We are talking here of billions in terms of budget impact," he said.

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