‘Like an avalanche’: How fatal flooding caught out Brisbane woman

A storm dumped almost 60mm of rain on Brisbane’s outer west in an hour before a woman was swept into floodwaters and died.

A storm dumped almost 60mm of rain on Brisbane’s outer west in an hour before a woman was swept into floodwaters and died yesterday.

A 75-year-old Taringa woman was found dead inside her car about three hours after police, fire, rescue swiftwater rescue crews, the dive squad and Polair commenced an extensive search around Pullenvale.

Lancing St resident Glenn Cole was saddened to learn of the fatal tragedy after arriving home just before 5pm Wednesday to find emergency services rushing down his usually quiet road.

He said the road needed a significant weather event to flood but when it did, the water in Pullen Pullen Creek rose quickly.

“Over the last few weeks we’ve had frequent rain and I think yesterday, way up where the water starts running into the creek, there was a lot rain in a short period of time,” Mr Cole said.

“It can come down like an avalanche.

“We’ve seen it before and people don’t take notice of the warnings.”

Sky News Weather chief meteorologist Tom Saunders said the storm dropped 59mm of rain on Pullenvale, most of which fell within an hour yesterday afternoon.

“It was huge amount of rain which fell from a band of thunderstorms within a short amount of time which is what led to the severe flash flooding,” Mr Saunders said

“The fact that the ground was wet added to the risk of flash flooding because we’ve already had quite a large amount of rain over the past few weeks.”

Brisbane has already received more than 80mm this month and last month received 257mm, saturating catchments.

“You have a lot of water within a short space of time running into creeks and rivers and therefore you get rapid increases in the levels,” Mr Saunders said.

“It’s called flash flooding if the increase in the river levels happens within six hours.”

Mr Cole said his family always took an alternative route to reach the other end of Lancing St when the Pullen Pullen Ck began to rise.

“For this to happen on our road is really sad, and it was avoidable,” he said.

“The water seems to go down as quickly as it rises, so if you drove over there tomorrow, you wouldn’t even know there was a tragedy.”

Storms have developed again further west this afternoon, with the Bureau of Meteorology warning Dalby, Goondiwindi, Gatton, Laidley, Lowood and Tara could be in the firing line.

Mr Saunders said the storms were slow-moving and would likely struggle to reach Brisbane but showers could develop along a sea breeze convergence zone along the coast.

“The chance of storms through this afternoon and this evening isn’t as high as it was on Wednesday,” he said.