Inglewood residents told to evacuate as floodwaters rise rapidly

Rain is falling again in Inglewood this morning, just hours after residents of the southern Darling Downs town were told to leave their homes after a quick 90mm downpour escalated the flood threat. It comes as a small town just down the road is now facing its own evacuation emergency.

Inglewood residents have described an uncomfortable and anxious night after they were ordered to evacuate to a cemetery where their only shelter was their car and people were getting bogged.

About 800 residents were evacuated from their homes in the southern Darling Downs town east of Goondiwindi after a very quick rise in the Macintyre Brooke.

The warning came from the Goondiwindi Regional Council at 10.30pm Tuesday after the Bureau of Meteorology revised a major flood threat that would likely impact the whole of the town.

The township of Inglewood on Wednesday morning. Picture: David Crisafulli

Emergency services initially expecting only 10 properties to be impacted. Things changed when 90mm of rain fell in the town within an hour.

“It happened quite quickly,” Queensland Police Service Deputy Commissioner Steve Gollschewski.

“… the local disaster management group was meeting- so the chair which was mayor, police and emergency services on the ground were all involved in that.

“As the night went on, the water was significantly more than had been expected so the modelling changed.”

He said they initially expected the river to peak at 10m but that was revised late in the night to more than 11m.

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“Once we’re heading over 11m, we’re looking at a major flood issue,” Mr Gollschewski said.

An emergency alert was sent to phones about 10pm and SES crews began door knocking.

Meteorologist Ben Domensino said the river level at Inglewood Bridge rose 8.7m during the 16 hours ending at 2am on Wednesday.

The alert was updated at 8am advising that the situation was still rapidly changing and the Macintyre Brook at Inglewood Bridge had peaked at 11.20m around 2.30am.

The flood levels are now at 10.95m and falling but will remain at major flood level into the afternoon.

As of 6.45am, about 800 residents have been safely evacuated and the river has peaked, but the emergency declaration remains in place.

A map of the area evacuated in the Queensland town of Ingelwood. Picture: Qld Police Service

Naomi Smith received an evacuation message to her mobile about 10pm when she made her way to the Inglewood Cemetery on Tobacco Rd and waited in a line of cars to get to higher ground.

“We were in the line for quite some time and they eventually turned us around because it was full and people were getting bogged,” Ms Smith.

“It was a bit nerve wracking not knowing what was going on.”

Ms Smith, her husband and son parked up at a second evacuation point on the side of a road out of town.

They couldn’t sleep as they spent the night in their car, hearing from friends that water quickly moved into their town, and over the access roads to the evacuation points.

“No one came to update us during that time and even this morning they really couldn’t tell us anything and we got turned around trying to get back into town.”

Inglewood local Vamshi Pathi, who runs the local Caltex petrol station, said some water inside the town has subsided, however rain has just started for the day.

He said his store had been inundated with flood water, which he estimated went up to just below his knee.

“Water is everywhere inside the store,” Mr Pathi said.

“It’s in the kitchen, on the floors, everywhere.”

He said many people in town spent the night in their cars.

“We spent the whole night in the car, we stayed in there and tried to sleep,” Mr Pathi said.

“The message came through late last night telling us to evacuate to the cemetery. The whole road there was jammed up with cars, everyone was there.”

Inglewood residents were ordered to evacuate. Picture: Facebook

Goondiwindi Mayor Lawrence Springborg, who is now cut off along with fellow residents at Inglewood cemetery, says evacuations will begin at the tiny town of Yelarbon this afternoon as flood waters continue to threaten a large slice of the state’s south east.

Cr Springborg said rescue personnel were anxious not to have a repeat of the emergency evacuations at Inglewood last night.

“We do not want to have to evacuate people in uncertain conditions,’’ Cr Springborg said.

“”There were a few people at Inglewood who were woken up and told to leave their nice warm beds by police and SES workers last night.

“While they responded with grace and patience, we do not want to do that again.

“We hope to have an orderly evacuation this afternoon.’’

The town of less than 400 people 300 kilometres south west of Brisbane and half an hour’s drive south of Inglewood, is “as flat as a billiard table,’’ Cr Springborg said.

Emergency services personnel still had good reason to expect and hope that the flooding would not be too devastating at Yelarbon, he said.

“We are going to evacuate out of an abundance of caution,’’ he said.

“But any inundation is likely to have an impact on the sewage system, so that is a concern.’’

Cr Springborg said the entire river system through northern New South Wales and far south west Queensland including the Granite Belt region now held a significant amount of water.

Emergency services personnel did not believe there would be major flood problems in the town of Texas, except for a few households on flat land.

Modelling was also under way to determine the flood threat to the larger centre of Goondiwindi, he said.

There was hope that, as the faster flowing narrow waterways spread out and widened around Goondiwindi, there would be slower movement of flood waters and less food impact n the town.

Farmers, including himself, were disappointed by the heavy rains, he said.

Those farmers still looking to harvest grain crops in particular would have suffered significant losses in the past few days.

Rising floodwaters in the town of Inglewood, east of Goondiwindi. Picture: Facebook