Tasmania flood crisis: 3000 in firing line of big wet

EXHAUSTED from days of storm-induced flooding, thousands of Launceston residents and businesses are bracing themselves for even more destruction as a high tide threatens the city later this afternoon.

The suburbs of Trevallyn and Invermay are most at risk from the swollen South Esk River.

About 3000 residents and 800 businesses are in the flood zone.

Emergency services have opened two evacuation centres in the area as well as three in Norfolk, Longford and Latrobe.

Police in Tasmania are still trying to find the bodies of two men, presumed drowned.

The floods there killed a 75-year-old woman on Monday.

In NSW, where extensive clean-up work has been underway for days, police are desperate to identify a woman whose body was found in water off Dover Heights on Tuesday afternoon.

Flooding along that state's east coast killed three men but authorities are unable to confirm if the female lost her life during the disaster.

"A crime scene was established and the circumstances surrounding the woman's death are being investigated," a NSW Police media release said today.

The slim 20-something woman is described as Asian and she had medium-length black hair.

Rescue workers are still trying to find a man who was seen in distress in waves off Bondi Beach early this week.

Meanwhile, Tasmanian mum Megan Krawczyk, her fiancé Michael and their three-month-old son were this afternoon still coming to terms with almost losing their lives when their car was washed away just hours earlier.

"It's still so surreal," Ms Krawczyk told ABC radio a short while ago.

"We are an absolute miracle, we are alive, we lost our car, we've lost a few possessions in our house." - ARM NEWSDESK