Brisbane braces for floods

Authorities urged thousands of people to leave the outskirts of Australia's third-largest city, Brisbane, Tuesday as floodwaters race eastwards after a surging two-metre wall of water killed at least nine people overnight.

Military helicopters are searching for scores of people still missing after a tsunami-like wall of water ripped through Queensland state's Lockyer Valley, lifting houses from foundations and over-turning cars on the streets of Toowoomba.

It was the deadliest episode of a weeks-long flood crisis, and Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard warned that the death toll is likely to rise.

The torrent is now moving downstream toward the state capital of Brisbane, Australia's third-largest city with some two million people.

Traffic jams formed in central Brisbane as people headed out by car amid heavy rains and initial flooding. Residents are stocking up on food supplies and families have started filling evacuation centres in the city and the neighbouring town of Ipswich.

Brisbane Mayor Campbell Newman said some 6,500 homes, businesses and properties would be flooded by Thursday.

Over the past two weeks the floods have at times covered an area bigger than France and Germany combined and caused an estimated $6 billion in damage.

Listen to report by Kelsea Brennan-Wessels: