Phones and power are out across much of northern Queensland, as supermarket shelves are stripped bare and floodwaters continue to rise.

The record-breaking deluge that has hit the country’s rain-soaked north is forecast to continue for days, with some people already isolated.

The heaviest rain has fallen between Lucinda to Townsville in northern Queensland.

There was nearly a metre of rain at Townsville’s Paluma Dam in Townsville in the 48 hours to Monday morning, while Ingham copped more than 400 millimetres in 24 hours.

East of Paluma, the Bruce Highway was cut when at Ollera Creek, north of Townsville, collapsed on Sunday afternoon. The collapse mean supplies of food, water and fuel will have detour by as much as 700 kilometres to reach centres north of the city.

The Ollera Creek Bridge has washed out, cutting the Bruce Highway. Photo: X

Queensland Deputy Premier Jarrod Bleijie said the major supermarket chains had assured the state government there were weeks of food supply already in the far north.

“The product was moved there before the floods hit, in anticipation for what was going to unfold,” he said.

The Australian Defence Force is also on the ground helping with evacuations. Multiple additional aircraft, including Chinooks, will be deployed on Monday to help resupply food into communities and carry out emergency rescue work.

The weather bureau issued a severe weather warning from Tully to Ayr on Monday, warning of isolated falls of 300 millimetres.

The continued deluge has led to swollen waterways with major flood warnings in place for the Herbert River, the Ross and Bohle River, the Horton River and the Upper Burdekin River.

“This is a significant and protracted weather event we’re seeing, with record-breaking rainfall in many locations,” Bureau of Meteorology spokesman Matthew Collopy said.

“That rainfall is expected to ease over the next 24 hours and as you move into Tuesday, Wednesday, that easing trend continues.”

However, he said there was a lot of water in catchments, with multiple major flood warnings for rivers.

“There’s already incredible amount of water on the ground,” Collopy said.

“There is more significant rain to come, so it will take days for that water to come out of those systems.

“We will continue to monitor very closely the rainfall and the responses in those rivers.”

The State Emergency Service was under pressure on Sunday night with 11 swift water rescues and nearly 400 calls for help for leaking ceilings, roof damage, flooding, evacuations and felled trees.

Two people were saved from the roof of their car that was submerged in floodwaters in Woodstock about 7pm. Another person was rescued from a truck stuck in floodwaters in Basalt.

A 63-year-old woman died on Sunday when a SES boat helping people through floodwaters struck a tree and flipped in Ingham.

Premier David Crisafulli said the flood disaster rivalled the 1967 emergency that completely submerged Ingham.

“This is a big one,” he told the Nine Network on Monday.

“To put it into perspective the 1967 flood, which everybody talks about as the one in 100 years, that was about 15.2 metres.

“[The Herbert River] remains close to 15 metres and has been so for some time.”

The flood disaster in Ingham has hit close to home for Crisafulli, whose family farm is affected.

“To see the images of people’s homes and businesses and farms, you know, they’re people I grew up with,” he told Sky News.

“Of course, it’s personal but ultimately, we’ve got a job to do, and that job is to make sure that people get the message and get themselves safe.”

There were multiple evacuation warnings for regions across the far north, with residents in Cardwell the latest to be told to leave.

Those in the Ingham area and Ross River “black zone” in Townsville spanning Cluden, Hermit Park, Idalia, Oonoonba, Railway Estate and Rosslea have been told it’s not safe to return home.

There were widespread telephone and internet outages on Monday, with power out at 30 Telstra network sites.

There were mobile phone, NBN and fixed-line outages in areas north of Townsville, including Rollingstone, Cardwell and Ravenshoe, as well as north of Cairns in Mossman, Coen and in the Torres Strait.

Triple-zero calls were also unavailable in some areas.

It came with more than 9000 northern Queenslanders without power after the Ingham substation was switched off due to floodwaters.

“It’s some of the worst inundation we’ve seen in this beautiful community,” Ergon Energy said.

The state government has activated hardship payment support for impacted residents in Hinchinbrook, Palm Island, Townsville and Gordonvale.

-with AAP