Qld weather: Townsville locals urged to leave as NQ’s cyclonic rain continues
Parts of North Queensland has been smashed by 900mm in less than 48 hours as Townsville residents are directed to evacuate with possible “life-threatening” flooding up to the second storey of buildings.
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Townsville residents are evacuating their homes this morning as they face possible “life-threatening” flooding up to the second storey of buildings, with thousands ordered to leave by midday or risk their lives.
The region was once again smashed with rain overnight, with the Bureau of Meteorology recording 700mm of rain from 9am Saturday to 7am Sunday at Paluma Dam, 639mm at Rollingstone, 409mm at Bluewater and 368mm at Ingham Airport.
“Practically, 700 millimeters has fallen in the last 22 hours, and around the Townsville area, we’ve seen another 150 to 250mm fall on top of the 300mm plus we saw yesterday,” Senior Meteorologist Dean Narramore said.
“So Townsville is approaching 48 hour totals in excess of 500mm, and unfortunately there’s a lot more to come.”
Residents in the suburbs of Cluden, Hermit Park, Idalia, Oonoonba, Railway Estate and Rosslea have been told to be out of their property by midday.
Flooding to second-storey floors is possible and single-storey buildings could be fully flooded.
“Water in the Ross River is rising fast and there will be dangerous and life-threatening flooding. Your life may be at risk,” the warning said.
“Prepare now and leave as soon as you can. Do not wait for further advice or emergency services to come to your door.”
Railway Estate resident Toni Wright evacuated her home on Sunday morning with her dog, Louis.
Flood waters had already started to inundate Ms Wright’s yard on Ninth Ave as she left.
“We were here in 2019 and got out when water was up to our waist, so we wanted to get out early this time,” Mr Wright said.
Oonoonba dad Robin Kerr was also preparing to evacuate his home with his young kids, Hazel and Quinn.
The family were hurrying to sandbag their home on Sunday morning before staying with family in Kirwan.
Swift water rescue teams evacuated a group of residents stuck on the roof of a property on Gregory St, Cardwell due to rising flood waters .
The group was safely relocated.
One man was also taken to hospital early this morning after he was found clinging to a fence in flood waters on Robertson St, Ingham.
A spokesperson from the Queensland Fire Department confirmed there were 15 swiftwater rescues in the past 24 hours in North Queensland.
A warning for damaging wind gusts of up to 90km/h is also in place for offshore islands including Palm Island, Magnetic Island, Hinchinbrook Island, as well as for the coastal communities.
“So that’s going to be strong enough to bring down trees, particularly with all this heavy rainfall moistening soils, making the trees fall much easier,” Mr Narramore said.
“Rain is continuing to fall across much of that warning area between Tully and Ayr, with the heaviest falls concentrated between and around Lucinda down to around Townsville, particularly around the Paluma Dam, Rollingstone, Bluewater and Townsville itself.”
Just after 4.30am Sunday an emergency alert for “dangerous flooding happening now” was issued for Hinchinbrook.
“Ingham Pump Station forecast to reach 15m early afternoon, February 2. 1967 floods peaked at 15.2m. Evacuation centre has changed to Cyclone Shelter at 12 Menzies St,” the warning said.
At 7.25am an emergency flood warning was also issued for Cardwell.
“Flooding is occurring in low lying areas and may spread. Residents in low lying areas should collect their evacuation kit and move to a safe place on higher ground. This situation may pose a threat to life and property,” the warning the said.
The Far North Region SES is transporting 100,000 sandbags to Townsville by truck, which are set to arrive Sunday morning to help protect homes and businesses.
SES have responded to 296 call-outs across both North and Far North Queensland in the past 24 hours.
Among the chaos thieves stole an Ergon Energy worker’s car while a crew was responding to a fallen tree on a house in Townsville.
About 2am Sunday, crews were called to Bayswater Rd at Currajong where a large tree had fallen down and partially landed on a home.
The Ergon Energy crew was called to assist with power outages when their car was brazenly stolen by thieves.
Police are investigating.
Residents are being urged to spare the toilet flushes as its sewerage system hit capacity due to the heavy rainfall.
The council has told residents to delay washing their clothes, to take shorter showers and ‘only flush your toilet when necessary’.
Already residents have reported raw sewage overflows from drains outside their homes.
Mr Narramore said the heavy and intense rainfall will likely continue into the night, but could start easing up or breaking into light to moderate rainfall on Monday.
However, widespread showers and thunderstorms are expected to linger on Monday and Tuesday.
“The persistent non-stop rainfall may ease, but we’re still likely to see widespread rain and storm activity on Monday and Tuesday, not only in the flood affected areas, but right across Northern Queensland,” he said.
Queensland Police earlier went door-to-door in several suburbs on Saturday – including Cluden, Hermit Park, Idalia, Oonoonba, Railway Estate and Rosslea – urging more than 3100 residents to get out before flood waters rose after a Watch and Act warning was issued. But many of the resilient residents chose to stay in their homes and wait out the weather – almost six years to the day from the catastrophic 2019 Townsville floods.
■ Full list of NQ road closures
Extra State Emergency Services, QPS, and Queensland Fire Department officers have been deployed from Brisbane to assist with the emergency, which has already seen eight swift water rescues in the region up until Saturday afternoon.
In Halifax, 130km north of Townsville, the Halifax Hotel was inundated with water but said it would continue to operate to serve the community and to offer “support to our SES, QFS, and QPS”.
Premier David Crisafulli sent a powerful message to the people impacted by wild weather, including to his father Tony in his hometown of Ingham – which has also been lashed by rain.
“They’re going OK,” he said. “And it doesn’t matter whether you’ve been through one wet season or many, it’s important that you listen to advice, and that goes for you, Dad.”
Mr Crisafulli said those who were being asked to leave by emergency services should heed those warnings.
“If you are in that area, we’re asking you to leave by midday, and the preparation has all been done yesterday, and we’re asking you to leave by midday,” Mr Crasafulli said on Sunrise this morning.
“Now, separately to that, if you’re in a low lying area and you believe that you’re at risk of flooding, you should also do that now.
“Our advice is if you can go with family and friends, but if that’s not an option, there are evacuation centres that are open at both Heatley as well as at the Townsville Sports Reserve.”
It comes after Opposition leader Steven Miles slammed the Premier for being underprepared for the horrific weather event, saying he failed to convene the disaster management committee before the storm hit. But Mr Crisafulli rubbished the claims and said they were well-prepared.
“Firstly Queenslanders need to know we are well prepared … we were putting a lot of resources into preparing ahead of this season and I want Queenslanders to know that we have prepared better than ever before,” he said.
“The most important thing is we get through this without a loss of life.”
A major flood warning has been issued for the Ross and Bohle Rivers from about midday on Sunday, as controlled releases continue at Ross River Dam.
Townsville Local Disaster Management Group chairman Andrew Robinson said rainfall was higher than expected, but the weather event was not on the same scale as the 2019 monsoonal trough.
“Here we are experiencing an unusual weather pattern, the dam levels may rise to the levels of 2019 – according to our worst case scenarios – but as with all disaster planning you plan for the worst and hope for the best,” Mr Robinson said.
District Disaster Coordinator Superintendent Graeme Paine urged those who have been advised to leave their properties to take it seriously.
“We’re moving into an area where there is a life-threatening risk around flooding and flash flooding,” Supt Paine said.
“Make no mistake – this is a very serious situation.”
Bureau of Meteorology senior forecaster Matt Collopy warned on Saturday that residents should expect “cyclonic levels” of rainfall in the coming days with isolated totals of 600mm possible despite three possible tropical cyclones off Queensland most likely not developing.
“You don’t need a tropical cyclone to concentrate the monsoon and get these extreme rainfall totals,” he said.
“And often even in a cyclone, it is the rainfall that has the most impact.”
Queensland Police Deputy Commissioner and Disaster Management Coordinator Shane Chelepy said the weather event was “very serious and dangerous” and that the next 24 hours forecast would be critical to moving forward.
Residents were seen walking in floodwaters on Saturday with police warning people to not risk their lives.
“We saw some very scary incidents around Townsville with people being washed away in floodwaters,” Mr Chelepy said. “On the back of that can I please leave a message for people to please stay out of floodwaters.”
Fifty extra swift water rescue crews have also been deployed to Townsville in preparation for severe flooding. Low-lying areas of Railway Estate swelled with water from about 11am on Saturday, with many residents choosing to stay in their homes.
Railway Estate resident Jordan Upton wasn’t fazed by the rain, walking home through his flooded street with a carton of Victoria Bitter under his arm. He said their street experienced tidal flooding often.
“It was worse yesterday, I couldn’t get through the street,” Mr Upton said.
Dozens of roads around the region had been closed, including the Bruce Hwy south of the city. Mr Crisafulli slammed the state of the highway, saying weather events like the one currently hitting North Queensland show how terrible the road is.
“The Bruce Hwy is a terrible road and I’ve described it as a goat track for a long time and events like this expose how bad it is and that’s why we’ve put in place for the first time in a generational plan,” he said.
Originally published as Qld weather: Townsville locals urged to leave as NQ’s cyclonic rain continues
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The timing of Steven Miles’ cheap political point scoring as he questioned the Premier’s response to the ongoing floods in Townsville is questionable, if not childish, writes the editor. Now is the time to act. Lives are at risk.