Greenbank resident loses home for second time in sudden storm deluge

A woman in Brisbane’s west has shared devastating footage of her home after it was smashed by a 131mm drenching on Tuesday, in a deluge she said was like nothing she’d seen before.

A Greenbank woman was awoken Tuesday morning to heavy rainfall as a “torrent of water and debris” flooded through her property in Brisbane’s west.

Sharing devastating footage to her Facebook account, Maria Noutsatos said she had later been leaving for work when she heard “loud bangs” and saw a “tsunami” of floodwater running through her shed and house in Greenbank.

“I have just woken up to a nightmare,” Ms Noutsatos said on the livestream.

“The water has come through the entire property. It was literally like a tsunami hit it ... it has never, ever come through here.”

Maria Noutsatos shares an emotional video of flooding at her property.

Pictures: Facebook

Ms Noutsatos told The Courier-Mail that her and her husband had lost their home at the same property in 2021 due to floods and water inundation from the roof, but she said she had never seen the amount of water that rushed through Tuesday morning.

“After hearing this weird noise I went to the entrance of the shed and there was water all throughout, and I grabbed my keys and jumped in the car because I could see this torrent of water coming through the property.

“I just thought ‘I have to get out’, because there was torrents of debris flowing down,” she said.

Ms Noutasatos was visibly emotional on camera as she surveyed the damage.

“My cats and my goats are in here, I can’t go in there and there is nothing we can do,” she said.

“My entire house has gone under and flood. Never, ever have we seen water like this.”

Ms Noutasatos’ husband David Clarkson was attempting to reach the property before facing a blockade of gushing water on their main road.

A slow-moving storm delivered intense rain to parts of the South East on Tuesday, dumping 131mm in three hours in Springfield Lakes - just 10 minutes from Ms Noutsatos’ Greenbank home.

The property had a ‘torrent’ of water and debris flow through it.

Pictures: Facebook

Ms Noutasatos and her husband had been living in a caravan since they lost their home and had just finished building a living area in their shed last month.

“We didn’t have contents insurance the first time ... insurance told us if they were to rebuild our house they wouldn’t finish for 18 months to two years,” she told The Courier-Mail.

“I am calmer now, but this morning ... it was just too much.”

Ms Noutsatos said since that time they had been more prepared with plenty of work done to ensure drainage and water diversion on the property.

“Since 2021 we know the good, the bad and the ugly bits of living on acreage, we know our property. But this was insane, it was totally different.

“We have a bridge that diverts water to the dams, but this couldn’t hold any of it and it just come rushing through.”

Ms Noutsatos and her sister Toula Scott own a cafe business with locations across the Gold Coast and Brisbane, and she said her sister had just been slammed by the Christmas Day ‘tornado’ that ravaged the Gold Coast.

Maria Noutsatos in the video.

Picture Facebook

“She lives in Helensvale and was without power for a week. She even went out with the food truck and fed the Energex guys,” Ms Noutsatos added.

Now, the Greenbank residents are beginning the clean up, amid warnings there could be more heavy rain on the way.

“We’ve had to get the bobcat out to move all the debris from the water ... we are going to take everything out and just start again,” she said.

“We are those people now who prepare and prepare, but it didn’t do a thing this time.”

It comes after The Courier-Mail reported residents in disaster-prone areas were being charged as much as $30,000 more – a 500 per cent increase from the previous year – to renew their home insurance.

Lynette Shephard, of Lawnton, who has lived in her home for 20 years, said her premium with ANZ increased from $5900 to $39,186.80.

Ms Shephard, whose home was previously hit by the 2011 and 2022 floods, said she was shocked when she saw how much her insurance had increased.

Choice insurance expert Jodi Bird said that over the years he had seen huge increases from $5000 to $40,000, or even more.

Federal treasurer Jim Chalmers on Tuesday called on insurers to “do the right thing” and not dud Queensland disaster victims as he also dismissed the mounting cost of the devastating floods and storms to the Budget.

Dr Chalmers on Tuesday joined Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, federal Emergency Management Minister Murray Watt, Queensland Premier Steven Miles, his deputy Cameron Dick and Gold Coast Mayor Tom Tate on the Glitter Strip to announce $20m in new disaster payments for victims of the Christmas-New Year storms and floods.

Asked about reports of insurers rejecting claims, the treasurer said victims were suffering enough.

“Our message from all three levels of government to the insurers is very clear - do the right thing by your customers,” he said.

“People have been through hell in some of these communities - hosing out homes, throwing away a lifetime of belongings, being in physical danger.

“The last thing that people need is insurance companies stuffing them around.”

Senator Watt said insurers had improved their performance and responsiveness to consumers in recent years “but the last thing that people want to see happen right now is to be dudded by an insurance company through finding some kind of a loophole”.

“We’ve got all governments standing together, we’ve got entire communities standing together, we need to see the corporate sector stand with Australians in their hour of need as well,” he said.

Asked about the impact of the recent disasters in Queensland, Victoria and Western Australia on the Budget, Mr Albanese said: “We’re going to make sure that people aren’t left behind.”

Dr Chalmers said the government’s primary focus was on the human cost of the disasters.

“Of course there’ll be an economic cost and a Budget cost as well and that will become clearer in the coming weeks and months,” he said.

“Australian are there for each other when times are tough and all three levels of government will be there for people as well as they contemplate this recovery and this rebuilding effort.

“We will do whatever we can to fund people through difficult times.”

More showers and isolated thunderstorms could be on the cards for the rest of the week in the southeast.