Ipswich wet weather chaos: 26 crashes, roads flooded
Rain has thrown Ipswich-area roads into chaos with more than 20 drivers involved in crashes since yesterday morning. It comes as residents prepare for a 100mm-plus drenching.
Ipswich
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Ipswich residents are anxiously bracing themselves as a huge rain system settles over most of Queensland, threatening to cause the potential flooding of already saturated waterways.
The Bureau warned severe storms may cause heavy falls, hail, and damaging winds to most of the state.
“This is likely to impact on road transport and access later this week and into next week,’’ they said.
Minor flooding cut off a number of roads northwest of Ipswich on Thursday morning (October 20) at Wivenhoe Pocket Rd and Banks Creek Rd at Fernvale.
There were no current river warnings issued for the Ipswich region, but 70-110mm of rain was expected to fall across Ipswich before Monday.
On Thursday morning Wivenhoe Dam was at 85 per cent capacity.
Water was being periodically released, which was likely to affect roads northwest of Ipswich.
From October 13 to October 19, Carole Park had recorded the most rainfall with 3mm. Amberley had 1.6mm.
West of Ipswich Gatton recorded 3.6mm, Merryvale 3.4mm and 2.44mm was reported at Lowood and Mt Tarampa.
Ipswich councillors Paul Tully and Nicole Jonic meanwhile announced a game changer for Goodna’s flood preparedness.
Mr Tully said the first of many flood watch cameras was installed at the Goodna boat ramp.
“This one will enable people to decide whether or not they need to evacuate because the level of the flood here… it will be the same across the suburbs,” he said.
The two councillors said they had been pushing for the cameras since the February floods.
Ms Jonic said it was a huge milestone.
“I’m really pleased we got this installed in time for the predicted wet season,” she said.
“The community across the south eastern part of Ipswich use the Goodna boat ramp as a bit of a yardstick when our rivers and waterways rise.”
Mr Tully said he was pushing for a flood siren at Goodna as a lot of residents did not get the emergency flood message sent to their mobiles during the last event.
Mr Jonic said the alarm system would be an important piece of infrastructure to aid non-English speaking residents.
This year there was a spike in crashes across Ipswich and police urged road users to drive safely and be aware of their surroundings at all times.
“With this weather drivers need to slow down and drive to the conditions,” a police spokesman said.
“Drivers should keep more space between themselves and other road users than normal and turn on their headlights.”
The wet weather caused chaos across the region as more than 20 cars were involved in crashes in just over 24 hours.
Recent crashes include:
Thursday, October 20:
Swanbank crash at Wesley Way about 9am
White Rock crash on the Centenary Hwy about 8.50am
Goodna crash on the Ipswich Mwy about 8.00am
Camira crash on Old Logan Rd about 7.30am
Riverview crash on the Ipswich Mwy about 6.20am
Wednesday, October 19:
Goodna crash at Layard St about 11.42pm
Goodna crash on the Ipswich Mwy about 7.30pm
Muirlea crash on the Warrego Hwy about 7.20pm
North Ipswich crash on Pine Mountain Rd about 7.20pm
Brassall crash on the Warrego Hwy about 7.15pm
Riverview crash on the Ipswich Mwy about 7.00pm
Ipswich crash on Chermside Rd about 6.15pm
Gailes crash on the Ipswich Mwy about 5.40pm
Eastern Heights crash at Whitehill Rd about 4.30pm
Camira crash at Addison Rd about 4.29pm
Eastern Heights crash at Robertson Rd about 4.15pm
Ironbark crash on the Warrego Hwy about 2.30pm
Camira crash on Old Logan Rd about 2pm
Springfield Lakes crash on the Centenary Hwy about 1.50pm
Springfield Central traffic accident on Main St about 1.20pm
East Ipswich crash on Brisbane Rd about 1.15pm
North Ipswich crash on the Warrego Hwy ramp about 9am
Blackstone crash on Mary St about 8.30am
Gailes crash on the Ipswich Mwy about 7.30am
Willowbank crash on the Cunningham Hwy about 6.20am
Amberley crash on the Cunningham Hwy at Ipswich Rosewood Rd about 6.00am
Ipswich sale and auction results, week ending February 9
There were 18 properties sold in Ipswich last week, with 75 new listings in the region. See the latest auction and sales results.
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