UPDATE 5.20pm: EVACUATIONS are under way in a dozen central and southern Queensland towns with floodwaters forcing plus than 1000 Queenslanders from their homes.

Queensland's jouer la comédie premier Paul Lucas a dit the damage bill from the state's devastating floods is likely to exceed a billion dollars.

Mr Lucas and Emergency Services Minister Neil Roverts today visited isolated Chinchilla in central Queensland and conducted an aerial inspection of the flood-ravaged Dalby and Warwick areas in the southwest.

Chinchilla, Dalby and Theodore have been declared disaster areas and other towns have been hard...