The raging torrent of muddy water swamped the city of Toowoomba, west of the state capital Brisbane, killing one female pedestrian, a Queensland state police spokeswoman said. Video taken at the scene shows a man clutching a tree as the gushing water sweeps down a street, pushing vehicles off the road, into each other and flinging one van into trees.

“We’ve had multiple calls requesting urgent assistance from people caught in vehicles, caught on the street, caught in flood ways,” Queensland Deputy Police Commissioner Ian Stewart said. “This has just evolved. There has been no warning of this event.”

It was the latest drama for the water-weary state, which has been devastated by weeks of pounding rains and overflowing rivers. Eleven people have died since late November and about 200,000 have been affected by the floods. Roads and rail lines have been cut, Queensland’s big-exporting coal mine industry has virtually shut down, and cattle ranching and farming across a large part of the state are at a standstill.

Video from the Toowoomba flooding captured the rescue of one man hanging onto a tree amid the churning waters. Others were stranded on the roof of a building, and on the roof of a submerged car. A spokeswoman with the Department of Community Safety said other rescue operations were under way.

Toowoomba resident Sarah Gordon said she saw at least 15 cars washed away by the floodwaters.

“A lot of cars got swept down the road … right down the creek,” she said. “A few people were trapped, but they luckily got out.”

The water also gushed into city businesses.

“The water was lapping at our office door and was just leaking through,” said Emily Hart, who works in a real estate office. “It all happened within a matter of an hour. It was a massive amount of water.”

Muddy waters also flowed through the main street in the city of Gympie, the latest of about 40 communities in Queensland state to be drenched by overflowing rivers. Gympie residents were frantically sandbagging buildings, but about a dozen businesses were inundated by Monday and dozens more were at risk as the Mary River burst its banks and kept rising.

The latest flooding was not as bad as in recent weeks, when entire towns were submerged beneath an inland sea the size of France and Germany combined. But it was a sign the ground has little capacity left to soak up any more moisture, so any new rain is likely to make matters worse, officials said.