Brisbane, Australia – Three quarters of the state of Queensland has been declared a disaster zone after torrential rain threatened the worst flooding in the state capital in 37 years.

Ten people were confirmed dead in flash flooding Tuesday which swept through the town of Toowoomba, about 125 kilometers (80 miles) west of Brisbane, on Monday afternoon.

The wall of water came without warning, overturning cars and swamping homes. More than 24 hours later, 78 people remained missing.

“It was almost like a movie scene — I went to a car park, it’s a council car park — and we had cars stacked on top of each other,” Toowoomba regional councilor Joe Ramia told the national broadcaster, ABC.

The deluge was compared to an “inland tsunami” which came with little or no warning despite weeks of rain.

The flood alert spread to the Queensland capital of Brisbane Tuesday with authorities warning that more than 30 suburbs were at risk of flooding, with water threatening 6,500 homes.

“This flood event continues to develop and change at a frightening pace,” Queensland Premier Anna Bligh said.

“As more rain continues to fall, local and state-level disaster management personnel are working to ensure the preparedness and safety of the community,” she said.

Evacuation centers were filling up Tuesday night as residents heeded advice to seek shelter away from affected suburbs.

The wave of water that devastated Toowoomba was moving through the Lockyer Valley where it was set to feed into the Wivenhoe Dam, built after the 1974 floods to prevent a similar disaster.

Heavy rains have already filled the dam to capacity and authorities are releasing water at staged intervals to release the pressure. That water is flowing into the already swollen Brisbane River. High tides predicted for Wednesday are expected to push the river’s water levels even higher before peak Thursday.

The predicted flooding in Brisbane follows a deluge further north that swamped the city of Rockhampton, 600 kilometers (370 miles) north of Brisbane in early January.

Authorities are warning that the flood may exceed levels set in 1974, when the banks of the Brisbane River burst, flooding thousands of homes and killing 14 people.

Residents in low-lying areas were being urged to move to higher ground Tuesday.

Steve Cook, a resident of the inner-city Brisbane suburb of West End, spent the afternoon loading his family’s belongings into vehicles to be taken away from the flood zone.

READ MORE: CNN