At the moment, the water has just tipped over the Brisbane river with the worst coming on the next few days.

UQ has canceled all their class for the next 2 or 3 days and probably not going to operate for the next few days as well.

Are you kidding me? 250 per-week for a 3 bed room in the CBD, furnished? Even if it's unfurnished, it's considered really really cheap. The normal market here for furnished 2 bedroom is roughly 400-500 while 3 bedroom is 500-600. If you are renting from people, it depends on the suburb with the ones further from the city like Logan will be a lot cheaper than the hot zones uni students or CBD. The rates go between 100 - 200 single bedroom and 180-250 for master bedroom, unless you want to live luxuriously. Also, regardless of the rental market, there is always a place to rent rooms or units regardless of how it is, just maybe slightly higher pricing. Eg. Student UniLodge, etc.

Oh, and also, Brisbane is recovering from their disaster pretty well. Everybody is doing their part to help out and getting the city into shape again. However, full recovery might take months, possibly years with the zones near the river being the most severely affected while those outside those zones are looking in pretty good shape.