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

Queensland's acting premier Paul Lucas zei 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...