Heavy rain expected to fall across North Queensland as flood-affected residents begin clean-up
Passengers hoping to get a flight out of a popular holiday spot have been turned away after a regional airport closed its doors amid wild weather.
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North Queensland residents are bracing for potentially more major flooding as flights at Whitsunday Coast Airport are cancelled, leaving passengers stranded amid wild weather.
Bureau of Meteorology senior meteorologist Dean Narramore said there’s plenty of more rain to come despite the region already experiencing large amounts of rainfall in the past week.
“With further rainfall forecast we could see renewed river level rises on some of these catchments and streams,” he said.
“We’re likely to see another round of showers, rain and thunderstorms develop around northern parts of Queensland, again possibly around Townsville through the Mackay area, which could drop another 50mm to 150mm isolated falls or possibly higher than that.
“That includes areas well inland as well.
“Over the next three or four days we could see falls of 100mm to 200mm over northern Queensland, with 200mm to 300mm possible particularly around Ayr and all the way up to the Tully area, which unfortunately isn’t great news for areas which have experienced severe flooding and heavy rainfall over the last week or so.”
The Whitsunday Coast Airport confirmed it had closed and cancelled all flights about 11am on Friday as weather conditions worsened.
“Due to the high potential for road closures to the Whitsunday Coast Airport and further heavy rain forecast, all flights today have been cancelled,” the airport stated.
“If you were scheduled to travel, please contact your airline directly.”
The Courier-Mail is reporting some passengers had been evacuated from the airport due to the closure.
Three Jetstar flights, four Qantas flights and one Virgin flight were cancelled on Friday.
The flights were expected to travel to Sydney, Brisbane and Melbourne.
It’s uncertain when the airport will reopen; however, Saturday’s flights are still scheduled to fly.
Meanwhile, the grim forecast comes as residents in Townsville, Ingham, Mackay and surrounding areas continue to try to clean up following a major flooding event, which has claimed the lives of two women in recent days.
SES crews are expected to arrive in the flood-affected region on Friday.
Premier David Crisafulli thanked those who were going to assist the region by meeting some volunteers on Friday.
“I get pretty emotional having a look at this, many of you are about to go and clean up my hometown of Ingham,” Mr Crisafulli said.
“I’ve never seen it the way it is at the moment and to see the faces of the people from across the country here in Queensland’s hour of need, guys, that means a bloody lot to the whole state.
“To everyone of you, you’ve left your own families and your jobs and your friends and you’re here helping us, and I can promise you as you meet some of the locals, they’ll be there for your state in their hour of need too, but we’re all Australians and we’re a bloody proud country
“I’m just so proud of you all and so grateful guys.”
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese announced on Thursday an additional $8m of relief would help flood-affected communities with the immediate clean-up of waste and debris and restore community facilities, playground and parks.
Eligible residents in Cardwell, Giru and Hinchinbrook LGAs who have suffered serious damage or injury will be able to access payments of $1000 per adult and $400 per child. Applications can be made through myGov.
But there’s great concern flooding will continue after the region experienced heavy rainfall on Thursday night.
“Once again we saw widespread rainfall across northern and central Queensland, partially in a band around Mt Isa through to Richmond and Winton, Hughenden and once again out towards the Townsville, Bowen and Mackay areas,” Mr Narramore said.
“Along that stretch, we’ve seen 50 to 150mm.
“Some of the highest falls overnight include just upstream of the Burdekin Dam, where we saw our alert gauges at St Ann’s 221mm, at Telegraph Rd 152mm, also around at South Townsville had our highest fall at 142mm, but Townsville once again saw 50mm to 100mm.”
Flood warnings remain in place for most of North Queensland.
Major flood warnings remain in place for:
- Cape River
- Herbert River
- Murray River
Moderate flood warnings remain in place for
- Upper Burdekin River
- Lower Burdekin River
- Suttor River
- Connors River
- Isaac River
- Ross River
- Bohle River
Minor flood warnings remain in place for
- Black River
- Bluewater Creek
- Pioneer River
- Barcoo River
- Don River
- Proserpine River
- Diamantina River
- Gilbert River
Mr Narramore said rainfall was also expected to continue in the Northern Territory after 20 to 50mm was recorded in parts of the Kimberly and parts of the northern Top End overnight.
“Widespread showers and thunderstorm activity right across northern Australia from the Kimberly to the Top End to The Gulf and of course much of Queensland as I’ve just mentioned,” Mr Narramore said.
“This widespread shower and thunderstorm activity is likely to continue in the coming days, and we could even see storms ramping up towards the weekend and early next week, particularly in the Top End, where we could finally start to see monsoonal conditions develop across the Top End, including Darwin.”
The Queensland government has also released disaster assistance loans of up to $250,000 for eligible primary producers.
Originally published as Heavy rain expected to fall across North Queensland as flood-affected residents begin clean-up
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