Lockyer Valley: Laidley main street flooded, mayor warns of future risks
Shocking footage has revealed the damage to just one of Queensland’s roads as the Army moves in to help residents in flood-ravaged Laidley. SEE THE VIDEO
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Shocking footage has revealed the damage to just one of Queensland’s roads after the deluge left by ex Tropical Cyclone Alfred.
4WD enthusiast and business owner Reuben Dolphin shared a video of an undermined road in the Lockyer Valley where the Army has been brought in to help with recovery efforts.
“This is a prime example of why you wouldn’t drive into floodwater,’’ said Mr Dolphin who runs DMW, a Toowoomba-based vehicle add-on manufacturer and fitter which specialises in off-road builds and accessories.
“Look at how much that has undermined that. Absolutely phenomenal.
“This is in our local area down here in the Lockyer Valley.
“When you couldn’t see this bit of road and you are looking at the markers you could say ‘Oh okay I could drive through that’.
“But you don’t know all that is missing underneath the water.
“That’s why they say flooded, forget it and it’s bloody true.’’
After mass rainfall totals in the Lockyer Valley across Sunday and Monday, the Bureau of Meteorology has lowed its flood warning levels for both the Lockyer and Laidley Creeks.
Moderate flooding is easing at the Lockyer Creek at Glenore Grove, while minor flooding is easing at Laidley Creek.
The Warrego Highway at Forest Hill reopened to traffic on Tuesday morning.
Army deployed to help Laidley clean-up as thousands still without power
The clean-up has started in Laidley and other towns in the Lockyer Valley due to the effects of ex-Tropical Cyclone Alfred, with the acting mayor praising the residents’ community spirit during trying times.
Sixty soldiers from the 6th Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment are helping with doorknocking in the community on Tuesday morning, while the State Emergency Service has also deployed extra crews to help the “Mud Army” of volunteers.
The soldiers had been tasked by police to doorknock homes in the flood-prone areas of Laidley to ensure everyone was safe and well.
Brigadier Richard Peace, Commander of Joint Task Group 629.3, said the soldiers were happy to lend a hand.
“We have been supporting the people with doorknocking and welfare checks, and just a little bit of debris removal from the roads to help residents and emergency services get in and out,” he said.
“It has been a very positive outcome, we were able to make contact with most residents.
“At an individual soldier level, this is about community, as a soldier you put your hand up to serve.
“This is not our primary role, but when we are tasked our guys are happy to respond.
“Seeing us working with police, it means that people are getting through, people are communicating so they are not alone or isolated.”
Long wait without power
According to the Energex outage website, more than 3000 homes are unconnected, mainly around Laidley and Crowley Vale.
Lockyer Valley acting mayor Chris Wilson said floodwaters had well and truly dropped back for all at-risk communities.
“Our key focus is definitely on the initial clean-up and recovery — all those catchments have receded significantly, so we’re looking the most positive as we have for a week in terms of the weather,” he said.
“We know there’s a lot of work to do the clean-up but that’s already under way.
“The Australian Defence Force deployed 60 soldiers — they stayed at the Laidley Cultural Centre overnight and they’ve been supporting emergency services.
“Everyone has been absolutely brilliant — if there’s a positive, it’s the community recovery because everyone gets together and gets it done.”
Mr Wilson urged residents to have patience while council crews worked to reopen the more than 100 roads and bridges that were closed due to the flooding.
“We just want to make sure the community is aware of support services — if we can’t help, we’ll find the agency who can,” he said.
“There are a number of roads closed that might not have water across them, so we’ll need time to get them reopened.”
Big clean up at the pub
Laidley’s Ryan Bright couldn’t believe his eyes when literal strangers rocked up on Tuesday morning to help he and his wife clean out the mud and debris from their newly purchased pub.
“We came in as early as we could get here this morning, and we faced the sight of a huge mountain of debris at the back and mud inside and people just started to pop up with shovels, brooms, gurneys,” he said.
“And they’ve worked together to move that mountain of debris and to get our building cleaned up,” Ryan said.
He and wife Brianna own the Laidley Hotel which has been undergoing a major renovation.
It was one of the biggest casualties from the weekend’s flood event as a result of ex-Tropical Cyclone Alfred.
Laidley’s main street was completely flooded, with several businesses inundated after heavy rainfall sent a huge body of water down the catchment.
Mr Bright said flooding ripped tiles off the walls of the pub, which the couple had just installed.
“It looked like a raging river coming down William Street through to the fields down there yesterday,” he said, noting the force of the water.
“We’re fortunate we’ve put in the investment into the foundations and a brand new roof.
“The facade was starting to look beautiful and we were about to start work downstairs on the fit-out.
“If there is any silver lining it is that we hadn’t yet commenced those downstairs internal works, but we’ll replan and adapt and get on with that when we can.”
Mr Bright said the couple planned to open by the middle of the year, promising free beers for the mud army that gave them hope.
“We’re still holding on to mid-year, but we’ll be pouring that beer or shouting drinks for the people who have helped us today,” he said.
“That community spirit, you could be forgiven for thinking that there’s no good people left in the world if you watch the media every night.
“This has proven to us that there are plenty of really good people and they’re here in Laidley, so we just want to thank them.”
Residents lend a hand
Julie Williams has run the 2nd Second Hand Shop for about 10 years and said Monday’s flood was the worst she had seen, excluding the 2011 flood.
“It was bigger and really fast flowing,” she said.
“It came quickly, I thought we’d have three or four days before we had flooding like this.”
The Laidley business owner was able to move most of her stock to higher ground before the flood hit, but still lost furniture worth about $5000 to the raging water.
When she arrived at the shop on Tuesday morning to start the clean-up she was greeted by an army of residents ready to lend a hand with the clean-up.
“I didn’t know any of the people here,” she said.
“They have come past and offered help, everyone helps out. Even if they have not been flooded, we all know what it is like.”
Wheelie bin collections for the Lockyer Valley have resumed, with JJ Richards working to catch up on missed properties due to the storms.
Most council facilities have reopened on Tuesday, with the exceptions of the Laidley customer service centre, the Gatton and Laidley Libraries and the visitor information centre and art gallery.
The Lockyer Valley Regional Council told residents on Tuesday morning crews would be hosing down footpaths and roads in Laidley’s CBD.
“Where accessible and safe to do so, crews will be out and about across the region clearing kerbs and gutters and removing flood debris,” it said.
“More than 100 roads and numerous bridges remain closed across the region, and we will inspect each one once floodwaters subside to ensure they are safe.
“Council crews will also remove ROAD CLOSED signs and barriers following inspections.
We thank the community for its patience as we begin this clean-up and recovery phase.”
Anyone with floodwater through their home can call the SES on 132 500 to help them hose out mud and debris.
In more positive news, Grantham’s floodwaters have receded, with the clean-up starting in the disaster-prone town.
Mr Wilson said the continued relocation of homes from the floodzone as part of landswap and buyback programs had further mitigated the damage.
“Twenty-seven houses have been relocated since the original landswap and the government buyback, so that’s 27 less doorknocks, 27 less houses we’ve had to not worry about as much,” he said.
“It’s just great that we’ve made the community much safer.”
MONDAY, MARCH 10: Communities in the Lockyer Valley are on high alert for severe flooding worse than the 2022 events due to converging weather systems brought on by ex-Tropical Cyclone Alfred, which the region’s mayor say have been a “nightmare” to predict.
Lockyer Valley acting mayor Chris Wilson said at least a dozen businesses in Laidley had already been inundated along with several houses, with the Bureau of Meteorology expecting even more rain over the next 24 hours.
It comes after a woman in her 60s spent at least an hour trapped in floodwaters inside her vehicle north of Plainland at Glenore Grove.
A Queensland Fire Department spokeswoman said emergency rescue teams were called to Forest Hill Fernvale Road just before 9am on Monday, where police later pulled the woman from a car stuck in flood waters.
A Queensland Ambulance spokeswoman said the woman was in a stable condition and paramedics were still assessing her at 10.30am.
Darling Downs district disaster co-ordinator Superintendent Doug McDonald condemned the driver’s decision to put her life and the lives of others at risk.
“Despite all our messaging – it was very clear this road was flooded – a person has chosen to drive into those flood waters and the vehicle has been swept away down stream,” Superintendent McDonald said.
“Our officers were required to put their lives at risk to save that person.
“Thankfully, that person was saved and our officers were uninjured but they were at significant risk, in fact, I would say what they did was very brave in the circumstances.”
He warned those thinking of taking on flood waters to forget it.
“Do not put yourself at risk and do not put my officers and other emergency services at risk by taking foolish decisions to drive in the flood water.”
Despite this morning’s rescue, Superintendent McDonald said majority of residents were following safety directions and warnings.
“For the most part I’ve seen drivers doing the right thing, it is those few people that make foolish decisions that put us at risk and themselves of course,” he said.
The nearby community of Forest Hill is also on high alert, with the State Emergency Service deploying extra resources to the valley to assist with potential evacuations and rescues.
Superintendent McDonald said Queensland Police were well equipped for the incoming weather.
“The minister has declared a disaster for this particularly area and that affords us additional powers to undertake out emergency operations with our partner agencies through this weather event,” he said.
“These things are incredibly unpredictable, especially for a cyclone crossing where it has – it’s almost unprecedented.
“We have other emergency service down there on the ground, they include SES with our flood boats and swift water rescue teams.
“We are also talking constantly with our colleagues in the Australian Defence Force and making sure we understand what assets they have available and, if needed, we will position those assets in those particular areas as well.
Superintendent McDonald praised residents in Laidley and the wider Lockyer Valley for their valiant effort in preparing for the fallout of ex-cyclone Alfred.
“We were door knocking that particular area from the middle of the week,” he said.
“Some people have chosen to remain in place and what we’ve found with the Lockyer Valley is this isn’t an unusual event for them.
“They do have a good self-awareness about what the flood levels mean … so they make an informed assessment but we always make sure we keep them as informed as we can.
“They are a very resilient and strong community.
“As usual we are seeing incredibly good things from people pulling together to help each other out, looking out for their neighbours and making sure everyone’s safe.
He added road closures were the next big focus for emergency teams as rain is predicted to subside in coming days.
“The Warrego Highway was closed this morning and will remain closed for some time and of course its opening will depend on weather conditions.”
“The issue for us with road closures is getting resources into the places where it’s needed.
“There is planning undertaken at all levels, especially at the state level, about making sure we are getting produce into supermarkets, making sure that we understand what the blockages are to that supply chain and working closely with all partners to do what we can to ease that impact.
“We are not just restricted to road transport and we will consider flying in resources if we need to.
“We are doing what we can, we need them to stay informed, listen to the media and social media, to remain aware of what the weather conditions are.”
Rain exceeds expectations
“The latest flood modelling that we did in the early hours of the morning predicted a moderate top level flooding and Laidley, not too much impact, but that’s now far exceeded that, which is testament to the intensity of the rain that we’ve experienced over the last six to 12 hours,” Mr Wilson said.
“The inundation in the main street of Laidley is at the point where it’s gone past the 2022 event levels and the concerning part of that is it is still pouring rain up the creek in the Laidley catchment and the creek levels haven’t dropped at all from peak levels.
“At this stage we’ve probably got about 10 to 12 businesses in Laidley with some form of inundation and probably a handful of houses as well.”
Mr Wilson said the cyclonic element of the storm systems had made forecasting for the local disaster management group difficult.
“What we’re seeing is like a convergence from rain coming from the northwest and then off the coast of the east as well,” he said.
“It’s been bizarre – so many times we’ve looked at the radar and thought, ‘okay, we’re through it here, we’ve got a break’ and next minute we just see these little cuds developing into decent systems or even storms.
“I’ve been through a few of these events now and it’s been the hardest to predict so far to model and I guess that’s the cyclonic factor added to it I suppose.
“It’s been a nightmare.”
Mr Wilson urged residents to keep track of the council’s Disaster Dashboard, saying the council was paying close attention to communities like Forest Hill and, to a lesser extent, Grantham.
“Forest Hill is the next area of concern, so we’re going to see some flooding there as well in the low lying areas on the western side of Forest Hill,” he said.
“We’ve got the Warrego Highway cut at Glenore Grove, which might be for an extended period because it’s still raining and the catchments are full.
“Obviously we’re watching all catchments, Grantham hasn’t quite had the rain, but in saying that some of this more recent rain has been in that catchments, so it’s certainly on council’s radar.”
Business braces to see damage
After a week of preparation, the new owners of Redmond’s Pet & Livestock Supplies in Laidley are waiting for floodwaters to recede to evaluate how much damage has been caused.
Lockyer business owners Andrea and Steve Dearden, who also run the Redmond’s store in Gatton, bought the rural supply store about 5 months ago.
Mr Dearden said he was fully aware the property was in the flood zone, however the prime position at 95 Patrick St, Laidley, was too good to pass-up.
“We understand with insurance they don’t give you insurance because it’s in a flood zone but it’s in a prime location so we had to weigh up the losses with the good,” he said.
“We’ve changed things around so there’s more space to store things up high.
“We removed 90 per cent of our stock to our other storage sheds in preparation.”
The 51-year-old said they did a final run to their Laidley property about 3am on Monday morning to remove any remaining equipment and machinery.
“We’re really well prepared, we’ve spent the week preparing it,” he said.
Mr Dearden said he wasn’t sure how much damage the flood would cause to property but hoped the biggest loss would be from closing the doors for three to four business days.
“That’s the biggest impact at the moment, the loss of trade,” he said.
“We really won’t know how bad it is until the water goes down.
“There’s not much you can do about it, these things just happen, it’s just life.
“You just need to deal with it and we will reassess when the water goes down.”
He said the clean-up would cost a lot of hours and labour, but he hoped to be up and running as soon as possible.
“We’ve been offered a lot of help by the local community which has been good,” he said.
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