Gympie floods: Mary River set to recede after inundating town
The Mary River at Gympie was expected to fall below the major flood level on Monday after inundating the town in a chaotic weekend.
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The Mary River at Gympie is expected to fall below major flood level on Monday after it peaked at 23m and inundated the town during a chaotic weekend of wet weather.
Gympie region residents facing urgent medical issues were flown to safety on Sunday while rescue crews were called to seven homes across Gympie and Monkland overnight Saturday in the midst of life-threatening flooding.
Incredible aerial images showed dozens of cars abandoned on roads cut by floodwaters. Businesses in upper Mary St were inundated on Sunday morning, after more than 100mm of rain was dumped on the region overnight.
Multiple cattle were washed away from farms upstream of Gympie, with reports of the terrified animals turning up in people’s backyards and shopping centre carparks.
A camel was found in flood waters at the corner of Iron St and Duke St in the heart of Gympie.
The Mary River at Gympie reached a peak of about 23m on Sunday and the latest advice on Sunday afternoon had it at 22.16m and falling, with major flooding.
Flooding in the CBD exceeded the 1999 flood record on Saturday night, with water in the CBD stretching from Smithfield St to the pedestrian crossing in upper Mary St on Sunday morning.
A Queensland Fire and Emergency spokesman said seven rescues were conducted across Monkland and Gympie, including the rescue of an elderly woman from her Wises Rd home.
Two rescue crews were called to the home at 9.50pm on Saturday with reports of a person trapped inside, with water “quickly rising up to the windows”. Rescue crews forced entry into the home, where they found the woman inside and rescued her at 11.43pm. She was uninjured.
Earlier that night, three rescue crews were called to a Monkland home on Noosa Rd with reports of one person stuck in a flooded house.
Goomeri, west of Gympie, was evacuated after a fuel leak at a service station mixed with flood water.
Bank of Queensland Gympie owner/manager Jellina White said she had lived through at least eight floods in the Gympie region, but this one was “unprecedented”.
She said the entire bank building was underwater, with flood waters lapping a back section of the roof.
Gympie resident Sha Shen Holderness, who was helping clear debris from the slowly receding flood waters in Mary St on Sunday morning, said she had spent the past two days helping businesses in Mary St.
On Sunday morning, flood waters had reached the second storey of the Empire Hotel in lower Mary St, which Ms Holderness said was being evacuated on Saturday night.
“The water was rising quite rapidly,” she said.
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