Homeless Queensland families could face months of waiting for their flood-damaged homes to be repaired following 10 days of catastrophic flooding in Townsville.

February 8, 2019

Hundreds of people remain holed up in Townsville evacuation centres as authorities race to find emergency accommodation for families whose homes were destroyed by floods.

Elsewhere in the north Queensland city, several suburbs remain partially flooded as mopping up operations continue in the tropical heat.

The homeless families face weeks and months waiting for their flood-damaged homes to be repaired following 10 days of catastrophic flooding.

More than 730 homes have been found to be severely damaged and 252 completely uninhabitable following about 1500 damage assessments, Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said on Thursday.

“That is sad news for families,” she told reporters.

About 20,000 homes are believed to have sustained water impact in the Townsville area.

It’s pushed the damage bill from the near-citywide floods to $124 million and rising, the Insurance Council says.

“As of 10am (on Thursday), insurers (HAD) received 10,064 claims, with insurance losses estimated at $124 million,” the council’s Campbell Fuller told AAP.

He also warned that scammers were active in Townsville, with fake tradies going door to door offering building inspections and repairs for cash before taking the money and running.

There have been more than 16,000 claims for personal hardship assistance with more than $1.9 million paid out so far.

Even as Townsville continues cleaning up after the floods, more flood waters are washing across west and northwest Queensland.

Graziers who last week were trying to ride out a long drought are now losing thousands of head of cattle in the floods.

Outback mayors spoke to disaster managers on Thursday, expressing the enormity of the flooding in communities such as Richmond, Flinders shire and Winton.

Severe weather warnings have finally been cancelled for North Queensland, with the weather system that caused the floods expected to move off the coast on Thursday night.