The Bureau of Meteorology has warned swollen rivers in Queensland’s north may rise to reach major flood levels. 

The Insurance Council of Australia declared floods in the region a significant event on February 2. Insurers have so far received 4980 related claims.

Today, major flood warnings are in place for the Herbert, upper Burdekin, Haughton, Flinders and Cape rivers after days of heavy rain.  

“Renewed rises are likely across many of these catchments over the coming days, with the potential to reach major flood levels,” senior meteorologist Miriam Bradbury said.

Severe thunderstorms could bring locally heavy rain and flash flooding, even in areas not covered by severe weather warnings, she says.

“This rain is falling onto saturated land, particularly along the northeast coast. As well as flash flooding, we may still see further river rises.”

The bureau says heavy rain will continue in northern Queensland until early on Wednesday, with a low over the Gulf Country embedded in a monsoon trough. That is expected to move slowly southeast over the Northern Goldfields and Upper Flinders into tomorrow.  

Places that may be affected include Townsville, Georgetown, Palm Island, Ingham, Croydon and Kowanyama.  

Isolated 24-hour rainfall totals of up to 300mm are possible into tomorrow before rain is forecast to ease across the warning area from early on Wednesday.  

After a week of heavy saturation, weekend storms brought rainfalls of 30-70mm to several areas of north Queensland, with even higher totals between Cairns and Townsville.

Between 9am yesterday and 5am today, 143mm fell in Rollingstone, 104mm at Kowanyama, 88mm at Paradise Lagoon and 86mm at Paluma.

Aon says more than 2000 homes have been affected in one of north Queensland’s worst flooding events in six decades. About 10,000 homes have experienced power outages, and roads and bridges have been damaged. Economic and insured losses may pass tens of millions US dollars, Aon says.

Insurers have been supporting customers at an insurance hub at Townsville Stadium.

ICA has now used its significant event declaration seven times. Such an event can be escalated to an insurance catastrophe if there is a material jump in claims numbers or complexity, or if the geographical spread extends.