Western Downs Mayor says people entering floodwaters are putting themselves and others at risk

Western Downs Mayor Paul McVeigh warns residents to stay out of dangerous floodwaters, as clean-up gets underway and the damage bill begins to be calculated.

With floods expected to peak across the region tonight, authorities has reiterated the dangers of swimming or driving in floodwaters following yesterday’s near-tragedy.

Western Downs Mayor Paul McVeigh expressed his disappointment with those who are ignoring warnings to stay out of floodwaters.

A massive rescue operation had to be launched in Dalby yesterday, after several people became trapped in the flooded Myall Creek.

While several children managed to escape, a teenage girl became trapped, forcing a bystander and a police officer to wade into the roaring torrent.

The trio spent nearly two hours clinging to a tree with swift water rescue technicians preparing to retrieve them via boat.

Mr McVeigh said he was “extremely disappointed” at some of the behaviour occurring in the region.

“If we’d have had a tragedy in that space, we’d have been devastated,” he said.

“A very big congratulations to our emergency workers, but they shouldn’t have had to be doing that, because people are putting themselves in these conditions of risk.”

Chinchilla resident Dianna Yates is also concerned with the numbers of people she’s seen walking in floodwaters.

“Even though it may look low it’s not safe especially the speed (it’s moving),” she said.

She also warned of hidden dangers under the surface, and the risk of infections.

The rain has eased, but there’s still significant water moving through the river systems across the Western Downs.

Mr McVeigh said while Charleys Creek in Chinchilla was still rising, he was confident the bridge across it would be cut.

BOM expects the creek to peak this afternoon at about 5.2m.

Chinchilla residents are preparing for a moderate flood tonight as Charleys Creek backs up and low-lying parts of the town are inundated.

Several homes and businesses are already affected, leading to the Domino’s Pizza store giving away free food now rather than see it go to waste .

Flood warnings are still in place for the Condamine river, Charleys Creek in Chinchilla and Myall Creek in Dalby.

The Condamine river at Chinchilla Weir is well above the major flood level of 10m, and the weather bureau is expecting it to rise further into the weekend as upstream flood waters arrive.

Myall Creek is also expected to peak today, with BOM predicting it will drop below the minor flood level of 2m tomorrow morning.

Despite this, the Mayor is warning residents to stay alert.

“We’ve got flows still going through the river system,” he said.

The Mayor said the weather event had drench much of the southeast and was the most water the region had seen since 2011.

He said it was still to early to determine what level of damage had occurred to local infrastructure.

“Certainly I think we will have a relatively large bill … so that will be a challenge but certainly can’t be addressed until (the water levels drop),” he said.

Residents in need of assistance due to rising waters can contact the SES on 132 500 or triple-0 in an emergency.