Southeast Queensland soaked by monsoon-like rains

Roads were inundated in Brisbane and on the Gold Coast, causing sinkholes to open up that swallowed cars.

Emergency services scrambled to rescue children and adults from rising floodwaters as the SES received almost 400 calls for help, including pleas to sandbag homes and patch leaking roofs already damaged by previous hail storms.

© Mike Batterham

Extreme wet weather causing flooding in the Currumbin valley area . A youth rides his body board in a roadside gutter then decides to take on the rapids of the Currumbin Creek.

The Gold Coast was one of the hardest-hit areas, with drivers trapped in submerged cars and a teenage boy stuck in floodwaters dramatically rescued. He was found clinging to a railing on a flooded causeway in the Currumbin Valley.

Another team plucked a man to safety from the roof of his car at Bonogin.

Falls of more than 200mm caused flash flooding across the Glitter Strip, including crashes, landslides and a 3m sinkhole on one of the Coast's busiest roads.

A tram and a car collided in Surfers Paradise amid the wild weather, leaving a female motorist with suspected head injuries.

Ten cars were damaged or left with flat tyres after driving into the sinkhole on Tamborine-Oxenford Rd.

© Mike Batterham

Extreme wet weather causing flooding in the Tallebudgera , Currumbin Valley area.

Flash flooding forced road closures from Helensvale in the north to Tallebudgera in the south and Mudgeeraba in the west.

Flights were cancelled or diverted as torrential rain bucketed down.

By late yesterday, the State Emergency Service had responded to 380 calls for help.

Queensland Fire and Emergency Services Superintendent Stephen Smith told his team were at a "heightened level of preparedness" to deal with more calls overnight.

"We've got extra swift-water rescue and specialist crews positioned around the place to enable an appropriate level of response capability," Supt Smith said. "All our crews are out there at the moment doing some long hours."

The rain will begin to ease mid morning today after heavy falls overnight were expected to drench the Gold Coast with over 300mm by 9am. Another 200mm was expected to fall on the Sunshine Coast and 150mm in Brisbane.

On the Sunshine Coast yesterday, the hinterland copped 170mm in just seven hours.

BOM senior forecaster Vikash Prasad said a "slow-moving trough" from the north was causing the big wet.

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