The floods, triggered by 36 hours of heavy rains over the weekend, also forced government officials in Queensland to urge the 2 million residents of Brisbane, Australia’s third-largest city, to evacuate.
Anna Bligh, Queensland’s premier, said five of the dead were children as were many of the missing. She called the catastrophe the state’s "darkest hour."
Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard was equally pessimistic.
"This is a truly dire set of circumstances," Gillard said.
More rain is in the forecast, and flooding is expected to worsen Wednesday and Thursday, the BBC reported.
"Today is very significant, tomorrow is bad, and Thursday is going to be devastating for the residents and businesses affected," said Brisbane Mayor Campbell Newman.
Newman said he expected at least 6,500 homes and businesses to be flooded later this week.
For more than two weeks rains and floods have pummeled an area the size of France and Germany combined in Queensland. On Tuesday, the raging waters soaked a second state, New South Wales.
The overall death toll since the flooding began is at least 20, The Associated Press reported.
On Monday, bursting rivers, including a 26-foot wall of water, blasted Toowoomba, a town of 90,000 people, ripping homes from their foundations and destroying everything in its path.
Toowoomba is nestled in the crater of an extinct volcano nearly half a mile above sea level.
"It would be ironic if it wasn’t so tragic," Toowoomba resident Charlie Green told the BBC. "We have just endured 10 years of drought, unable even to wash our cars with town water for the last several years."
Damage estimates for Queensland could be as high as $5 billion, officials said.
"The power of nature can still be a truly frightening power, and we've seen that on display in this country," Gillard said.
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