December rainfall records smashed – as it happened

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• Defence force deployed to north Queensland flood zones as thousands remain without power and supplies run low
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Queensland floods: Douglas shire mayor says we weren't prepared' for such heavy rain

Cairns mayor Terry James says at last count, there were 79 people, five dogs and two cats in a nearby evacuation centre.

To have a cyclone come across [and] for it to just stall, stop and sit directly above us and drop the amount of rain that it has is very unusual.

It's something I don't think we were prepared for and the fact that the amount of rain that came from the system we weren't even anticipating that would be the case.

It's widespread, there is absolutely water everywhere ... I don't think there's a road that hasn't been covered or damaged.

This is something that we haven't seen for decades.

And because we're so isolated, we just can't get people from Cairns up here either.

Then the recovery side of this, once this water does disappear, it's gonna be massive. There's infrastructure damage galore, so this is going to be a long-term repair job for us.