Warwick residents face two years of pain after widespread flooding devastates region

The road to recovery is going to be long and rocky for the Southern Downs, with the Mayor saying it will take years to repair the widespread damage caused by the disaster that swamped schools, homes, clubs and businesses.

Warwick and the Southern Downs faces a rocky two-year road to recovery, after devastating floodwaters swamped dozens of homes, businesses and sporting clubs, and annihilated roads.

The rapidly-rising waters wreaked havoc across the Rose City on Friday, with the Condamine River surging to 7.65m and closing the OO Madsen Bridge and cutting access to Warwick from the north for almost 24 hours.

It followed Killarney’s main street flooding on Thursday, with 280mm of rain reported at the Head over a 24-hour period.

Southern Downs Mayor Vic Pennisi said the extensive damage had hit people across the region hard, saying there was a rough and bumpy road ahead.

“If you look at the big damage – and there is some serious damage – I would estimate with the resources we have and knowing contractors are booked out and we can’t find any to help us, it is going to take us two years to recover from this situation,” Cr Pennisi said.

“We maintain over 3000km of road and there wouldn’t be too many kilometres that don’t have a pothole.

“If we were able to repair them at 10km a day, that would still take you 300 days to just fix the potholes.

“We aren’t going to be able to fix every pothole today, in fact a lot of them are going to get worse before we get to physically repair them.”

Warwick East was closed for four days following the devastating 2022 flood event.

Cr Pennisi said it was difficult to again watch the community struggle with disaster.

“People are exhausted, they are absolutely exhausted by the number of incidents we have had and it is a really difficult time for them,” he said.

“I have seen people from the highest level of distraught to those who say, ‘well we knew we were going to get it’, and everything between.

The Mayor said the road ahead would also be dictated by any further flooding in the near future, with the region remaining on alert.

Warwick East State School was one of the worst affected due to its position near the river, with waters inundating the entire grounds and closing the school for almost a week.

East was due to reopen to students on Wednesday at the conclusion of repair works, but was pushed to Thursday morning.

A Department of Education spokesman said the school suffered “extensive damage”, devastatingly impacting the historic National “brick room”, which has only recently been restored.

Warwick East was closed for four days following the devastating 2022 flood event.

“This includes damage to classrooms and amenities, as well as to the play areas, tennis court and the school oval,” the spokesman said.

“The National school building onsite was also heavily impacted by floodwaters.

“Initial rectification works have commenced and a heritage consultant will be engaged to assess the current state of the building and oversee necessary rectification works.”

Works at Warwick East commenced on Sunday and are expected to continue through the week.

Homes along Fitzroy St and surrounding areas were inundated, including the council flats opposite East School.

Allora was heavily impacted by floodwaters for the second time in months, this time resulting a break in the water pipeline and cutting access to town water.

Warwick East was closed for four days following the devastating 2022 flood event.

The council has implemented carting of potable water to the Mt Marshall reservoir through a partnership with the Toowoomba Regional Council.

A Recovery Hub has been set up at the former St Mary’s lower campus on Palmerin, with Communities Minister Leeanne Enoch urging residents to seek assistance.

“These hubs are a place where residents can talk to community recovery workers, receive referrals for community organisations and other government agencies and those who are experiencing hardship can apply for grants for this May flood event.

“This includes Emergency Hardship Assistance grants, of up to $180 per person and $900 for a family of five or more, to help cover the costs of essential items, such as food, medication and clothing, for people who have been directly impacted by this disaster.

The community recovery hubs will open from Wednesday 18 May, 9am – 5pm, seven days a week