Brisbane River to stay menacingly high

13 Jan 2011, 8:18 am   -   Source: AAP
A suburb of Ipswich on Wednesday afternoon. (AP)

A suburb of Ipswich on Wednesday afternoon. (AP)

The Brisbane River has peaked but will stay at its devastatingly high level for all of today.

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The Brisbane River has peaked but will stay at its devastatingly high level all of Thursday.

Bureau of Meteorology hydrologist Peter Baddiley said the Brisbane River at the CBD would not drop much from its height of 4.45 metres, which was steady on the high tide at 6.30am (AEST).

Brisbane City Council estimates 11,900 homes have been flooded and another 14,700 partially flooded, mainly in the city, riverside suburbs St Lucia, West End and Graceville, and low-lying Rocklea.

About 2500 businesses would be fully inundated and another 2500 partially flooded.

Mr Baddiley said the river would drop on Thursday but not by much.

"It will back off a little bit, just a touch with the lower tide perhaps, but generally hold steady," he told ABC Radio.

On the afternoon high tide, the river would be around 4.3 metres.

The bureau's next flood warning, issued at 8am (AEST) would have forecast river heights for Friday.

Lord Mayor Campbell Newman said there was a lot of water in the CBD, but the lower than expected peak had saved many businesses and high-rise apartment buildings.

"We all now have to rally together to help these people clean up, the ones that have suffered impacts," he told the ABC.

He said drinking water supplies in the Brisbane City Council area were safe and secure.

But he said there had been some inundation of sewage pumping plants on the city's outskirts and that if people did have to wade through floodwaters there they must wash thoroughly to avoid infections.

Mr Newman will fully brief the media later in the day.

Treasurer Andrew Fraser, who was out early touring flood damage, repeated warnings that the state's economy would take a massive hit from the crisis.

"There's obviously a lot of individuals and a lot of businesses who have a very big clean-up task ahead of them," he told the ABC.

He said economic forecasts would have to be revised downward.

"I don't think there is any doubt that this is going to be a big blow to the economy," Mr Fraser said.

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