Southwest and central Queensland hammered by ‘intense’ 150mm rain event
Towns are cut off, roads flooded and crops destroyed after south west and central Queensland recorded some of their biggest rainfall totals in 20 years. WATCH THE VIDEO
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Southwest and central Queensland has been hammered by intense rain since Wednesday evening with flash flooding, rising rivers and roads closed.
Bureau of Meteorology senior meteorologist Daniel Hayes said some parts of southwest Queensland had recorded in excess of 150mm.
Landsdowne, 65km south of Tambo in central Queensland, recorded 210mm in a single day.
“We did have a severe thunderstorm warning issued out in the western parts around the Maranoa, the Warrego into parts of the central west,” Mr Hayes said.
“We saw falls of up to 128mm around the Darling Downs area, in the Goondiwindi area.”
Michael Offerdahl from Toobeah Hotel said the town had not experienced a rain event like this in decades.
“I don’t think we’ve had this much rain in one go in about 20 years,” Mr Offerdahl said.
“It’s just pelting down here we’ve probably had about 150mm in the area, we don’t normally get this sort of big rain in the area, so it’s pretty unknown how it will all play out as far as what creeks and rivers will do.
“But there’s roads being shut here already.”
“There’s a big sorghum crop in the area … we’re sort of hoping that this stops today and the sun comes out tomorrow so we make sure we don’t end up losing our crop in the area.
“It’s pretty hard to worry people out here, we’re living on a flood plain, there’s always something going wrong.”
Fiona Raeowns a property northwest of Toobeah and said they have had over 165mm of rain since Wednesday night.
“It’s been pouring all morning which has been great because we have needed rain out here,” Ms Rae said.
“For us as farmers. we love the rain. When you are in the bush it is your income, you rely on it. It will set us up for a good season.
“We generally welcome the rain, not so much in one go though.
“But I feel so sorry for our neighbours, they’ve got their daughter’s wedding today. So they’ve got a beautiful marquee and everything set up but they’ve got water all down their driveway.”
Ms Rae said they were fortunate to have not sown any crops yet, otherwise they would have destroyed.
“There is definitely a concern when you’ve had too much (rain) especially when it can flood the paddocks,” Ms Rae said.
Deputy Commissioner Shane Chelepy said police had seen significant traffic accidents on the wet roads and people were still continuing to take risks by driving through flooded waterways.
Mr Chelepy said a flood peak of 6.7m was expected in Charleville tonight.
He said levee gates would be put in place this afternoon which were expected to protect the town.
“The levee has that capacity to 7.9m,” he said, adding evacuations would not take place unless the water level reached 8.1m.
Mr Chelepy warned roads into Charleville would likely be cut off in coming days.
State Emergency Service acting Assistant Commissioner Brian Cox said there had already been 59 calls for assistance across the state since Wednesday.
“A lot of these are to do with water inundation into homes,” he said.
“We have deployed additional QFES swiftwater crews, particularly in the area of Charleville.
“What we are asking for people to do is to remain vigilant. With the current weather conditions flash flooding can occur in minutes, not hours or days.”
Mr Cox said people should check local government and transport and main roads website before planning travel.
At Charleville, the river was recorded at 4.72m and is expected to rise.
The river at Charleville is likely to exceed the moderate flood level of 5m by late Friday morning.
Biddenham and The 27 Mile Garden are currently experiencing flooding.
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