As the Fitzroy River inches closer to a nine-metre peak that will swamp Queensland homes and businesses, 1500 kilometres away in Canberra, hundreds of Centrelink staff are swinging into action.
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In a drab government building of death-star proportions, staff in the Channel Operations Centre are co-ordinating the government's financial and physical response to Australia's latest natural disasters.
While 40 screens dictate the moment-by-moment action - too many calls waiting here, not enough response there - staff on the ground, deployed after a natural disaster declaration, keep up face-to-face meetings with social workers and people trained in natural disaster relief attempting to reach those who telecommunications have failed.
A by-product of Australia's experience with natural disasters - if its not fire, it's flood - the Department of Human Services is well-versed in responding in times of crisis. Only the Defence Force sends more people into action.
Within hours of former Cyclone Debbie making landfall in north Queensland last week, extra staff were organised to answer the calls they knew were coming.
Once the wind and rains die away, the financial burden remains. Mortgages and rents still have to be paid on storm-damaged homes. On Wednesday, another six regions were declared natural disaster areas, with the Gold Coast, Lismore, Mackay, Logan, Scenic Rim, and the Tweed joining the Whitsundays.
That could mean as much as an extra 30,000 phone calls in the next few days from people asking for help.
It's in Canberra that the avalanche of calls is managed, though staff in as many as 300 call centres around the country will actually pick up the phone and provide a response.
And, with 900 people already tasked with call response, dealing with the 5000 or so queries from just the Whitsundays disaster zone, coming on top of the 200,000 phone calls the department deals with on a daily basis, the Australian Tax Office call centre was put on standby to handle the overflow.
The last time calls were routed to the ATO in a time of disaster was 2011, when Queensland was devastated by flood.
The Queensland government had already asked for help, with staff picking up those calls the state could not handle.
Reservists - departmental staff who volunteer to be called in the event of an emergency - have already been sent out, working from offices powered by generators or with power flickering on and off.
It takes the system 4.6 seconds or so to allocate work from the moment an employee logs on. But there is more work than workers and wait times still apply.
On Wednesday afternoon, all eyes were on Rockhampton in central Queensland and the ever-burgeoning Fitzroy River, which was predicted to finally stop rising sometime Thursday morning at a peak of nine metres.
That was smaller than the predicted 9.4-metre peak, but will still devastate Queensland's beef capital, with another 1800 homes and 550 businesses expected to be added to Debbie's tally. The airport had already closed, leaving authorities just one road to get in and out. Byron and Ballina remain on the watch list.
The calls increase as news of the Disaster Recovery Allowance - short-term payments to people who can show their income has been impacted by the disaster - and the Disaster Recovery Payment - a one-off payment of $1000 per adult and $400 for each child under 16 - for those who lives have been "significantly affected" by the storm and its later surges, filter through affected communities, not including the state payments.
Human Services Minister Alan Tudge said it was one of the unseen but important government mechanisms.
"It is one of the more impressive parts of the government - the ability to be able to kick in when there is an emergency," he said.
"And literally, within hours to be able to deploy people to call centres, to people on the ground, social workers and give financial assistance to those who need it."
For more information call 180 22 66 or head to https://www.humanservices.gov.au
