Brisbane flood: Massive clean-up as water recedes in some suburbs
As evacuation orders and emergency alerts remain in place for some South East residents amid major flood levels, others have woken to a huge mess left behind as water recedes. And the reports of looting have started.
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The massive clean-up has kicked off in parts of Brisbane early on Monday morning as water levels subside and residents facing a huge mess.
But homes in some suburbs are still heavily flooded, with some people still be rescued from their homes.
It comes as reports of looting emerge, with people in Oxley, where many homes are still at least partially underwater, saying they have had to warn off a number of people who were travelling between homes in a kayak.
Surf Life Saving Queensland crews were at lunchtime helping evacuate several apartment blocks that have lost power in Toowong.
Two zodiac boats were being used to ferry the residents to dry land.
Beau Nathan lives in the Landmark building that’s being evacuated.
“Our building lost power at 12 and we already had no water since yesterday,” she said.
“The water is over our head deep out the the front of the apartment block.”
Ms Nathan was going to stay with friends for a few days.
Surf Life Saving Queensland have been at the scene since 11.30am and were also here last night.
Queensland Police state disaster co-ordinator Mr Gollschewski warned residents not to return to their homes too quickly.
“People should not go into floodwaters,” he said.
“It’s been disappointing and we’re seeing imagery all the time... of people going into flood waters.”
That included people padding in on boats “for a lark”, which was very disappointing, he said.
He said power was turned off to thousands of homes, largely because of the danger of the flooding.
He said people should be relying on official emergency channels for their advice and they had a responsibility to be informed.
Frank Zubeldia evacuated his 78-year-old mother Maria from her home at Cook St, Oxley, late Sunday.
Her home flooded in 2011 but he said it appeared the water had not reached as high this time.
“Mum didn’t want to leave,” he said.
“She reckons she’s coming back tonight. She used to live further down the street and she’s been in the area her whole life. It’s unfortunate but there’s not much we can do.”
Mrs Zubeldia said she tried to put her valuables high up before she left.
“I put my clothes high,” she said. “I pray to god that it wouldn’t (reach the 2011 height).”
Further down the street, a man in his 80s has refused to leave his home. Neighbours are periodically visiting him in a canoe to check if he is okay.
Maggie Tremearth also lives on Cook St and said the downstairs of their two-storey home was underwater.
“We just renovated downstairs in December,” she said.
“It’s about four or five inches through the bottom. I woke at midnight and it was dry and then at 6am it was under.”
Mrs Tremearth said she and her husband had lived at the property for 20 years.
“It was much higher in 2011,” she said. We managed to move a lot.
“There’s nothing more we can do. We just have to watch and wait.”
Ms Tremearth said the community had banded together to look after one another.
“It’s a lovely little neighbourhood,” she said.
“We’re lucky compared to a lot of people. There’s people a lot worse off.”
David Creese evacuated his family from their Turner S home at Chelmer about 3am Saturday.
“I think for the kids it was a bit exciting at first because we’re staying with friends but the magnitude of it is hitting today, especially for the little one,” he said.
“We just want to get back in and check it out.
“It will be good to get that mental closure and see how bad it is.”
Mr Creese, whose family moved to Queensland from Melbourne about three years ago, said they only purchased their Chelmer home about seven months ago.
“You see this kind of thing on the news and you think ‘it’ll never happen to me’,” he said.
“It’s just surreal.”
Mr Creese, whose children are aged 12, 10 and 7, said the water rose quickly through the house.
“You could see it come under the house and within 15 minutes it was ankle deep and then 10 minutes later it was knee deep,” he said.
“Having three kids we just packed what we could and got out of there.”
Claire and Reggae Grizard live on Richardson Street at Chelmer and said they were some of the lucky ones, with the floodwaters reaching ankle height in the bottom storey of their home.
“Next door and the one down from that are completely under so we’re very fortunate,” Mrs Grizard said.
“We had all of yesterday to prepare. We’re okay at the moment but we’re just hoping this is it.”
Janet Brady was rescued from her Chelmer home by a QFES swift water rescue team.
“It just came up so quickly,” she said.
“It’s just underneath the house so hopefully it doesn’t come up higher.”
She thanked her rescuers.
“They’re all amazing,” she said.
Lynne Gosse was rescued from her Hart St home at Chelmer by a QFES swiftwater rescue team, along with her dog Poppy.
She said she was not prepared for how high the water came up.
“It was quite fast. I put some of the important things up higher. The cars are underwater,” she said.
Ms Gosse said she and her five-year-old dog Poppy were grateful to the rescue crew.
“They were wonderful,” she said.
“Poppy was so good on the boat.”
Amy O’Hara kayaked to her West End home this morning to retrieve her family dog Pippa who rode out the floods with her dad.
Ms O’Hara said they had raised the Ryan St home after the 2011 floods but they acted quickly on Sunday morning, knowing the devastation they could be facing.
“My dad woke us all up really early on Sunday morning and said we had to get everything upstairs, so we did,” Ms O’Hara said.
“Water was coming up Hoogley St but it was also coming out of the stormwater drains outside our house.
“The water didn’t get inside until late Sunday.”
Water in the downstairs section of her house reached about 1m high and Ms O’Hara and her sister booked a hotel room for the night.
She returned this morning to check on Pippa and her dad who managed to stay dry on the second floor.
“She hadn’t gone to the toilet since the water rose because there’s no grass to go on,” Ms O’Hara said.
“I wanted to say hi to her and bring her back to go to the toilet.
“She was really stressed when we pulled up, trying to get onto the canoe, but she’s happy now to be out of the house.”
In nearby Graceville, Mike Bayer and Gaenor Walker woke early on Sunday to find water was already inside their house.
They escaped with their cat and passports but could not save anything else.
“It came up so so fast,” Ms Walker said.
“We went to sleep and there was no water on the block and then we woke up at 2am and it was up to our ankles.”
The devastated couple, who live on Graceville Ave, said they were not insured for flooding because the estimate was $10,000 a year.
“When we bought they told us the water didn’t make it above the floor boards in 2011 but now we just don’t know,” Ms Walker said.
“We thought by the time a one-in-100 year flood happened again we wouldn’t be here,” Mr Beyer said.
The pair moved to the home in 2018 and had only last week finished a renovation of the kitchen.
“Everything is in boxes on the floor,” Ms Walker said.
“Our neighbour kayaked over our fence and said it would be at least knee deep through the house.”
In Windsor in Brisbane’s inner-north, neighbours came out in droves on Monday morning to help with the overwhelming clean-up in Windsor following the weekend’s flash flooding.
The lowest point of Victoria St remained under water at 8am this morning with abandoned cars submerged to their roofs.
Residents said yesterday morning the water started to rise before some chose to evacuate to safer areas.
“We left last night to stay at my mum and dad’s but I couldn’t stop thinking about it all night,” one resident said.
There were around eight kayaks working all night to rescue residents from their homes as the water rose to the second level of two-storey Queenslanders.
Windsor resident Rachel Campbell said she was imagining the worst case scenario last night when she left her home to safety.
“It’s was so scary, we got evacuated at 7.30 by some rowing boats,” she said
“You just think of worst case scenario and I was just worried the whole time.”
But the silver lining for the long-time resident was how the community was able to come together.
“Sometimes you feel the sense of community is lost so times like this really helps remind you to help your neighbour,” she said.
Meanwhile, around the corner David Weller and his wife Inga remained in their house all night with the water just reaching the bottom floor of their two-storey home.
“It was pretty scary, we moved the cars right away,” she said.
“It’s definitely worse than the 2011 floods, we never expected it to get that high. We just didn’t know what to do.”
Just three weeks after moving into their new house, Greta Gutteridge and her friends were forced to leave yesterday morning as water inundated their home.
“Our parents were pretty worried so we got out of there pretty quickly,” Ms Gutteridge said.
A thin layer of mud covered the floor of their raised house after the water drained out from the inside, while the backyard was still completely flooded, even hours into the morning.
“We just don’t know where to start really, it’s so ridiculous,” housemate Annabelle Madden said.
The girls said the house reach around shin height inside but was likely much higher during the peak last night.
A much-needed beer delivery arrived this morning to a share house on Bowen St in Windsor after the group of boys who lived there watched the flood wash through the bottom level of their home.
Despite each of the cars being completely flooded and smashed by debris, spirits were remained high at the share house.
After spending all night at the house using their tinnie to rescue their neighbours from the rising waters, the boys said the biggest worry was running out of cold beers.
Thankfully in the morning, a friend on a kayak delivered two cold cartons and a pack of ice to the house that would likely see them through the next few days of isolation as the water recedes.
Takeaway store owner Megan Le cried as she surveyed the damage at her shop Salt and Pepper in Milton.
“We salvaged everything we could,” the Heussler Terrace shop owner said
“I guess everything you could think of we have to buy new - cooker, deep fryer that’s at least $20,000,” she said.
Ms Le said it was almost impossible to get flood insurance in the area after the 2011 floods.
“They won’t insure us after 2011.”
A regular customer was thinking of starting a fundraiser for the affected businesses she said.
Ms Le said the business had been there for only two years when the flooding struck.
Staff and nearby businesses are helping Grill’d at Rosalie remove stock after it was inundated by floodwater.
Harcourts Rosalie owner PJ Salami came down to check his business but helped out Grill’d.
“I just came to check our office and I’m helping out where I can,” he said.
“They need help.”
Mr Salami said his business managed to stay above water.
“We seem to have just been missed,” he said.
Year 2 student Tor Paris ventured out this morning to see his school Milton State School completely underwater.
“It’s a bit crazy,” he said.
Tor said he was “sad” at the damage.
The school had just built a new infant centre which would now be damaged.
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