Town’s worst flooding in 11 years as torrential rain continues to wreak havoc

The Bureau of Meteorology warns the worst is yet to come as the town of Grantham is expected to receive its most intense downpour since the deadly floods of 2011.

The Queensland community of Grantham was last night bracing for its worst flooding since the 2011 disaster that claimed a dozen lives as towns across the state were swamped by one of the most intense weather systems in decades.

As families were evacuated and others huddled on rooftops to escape rising water levels, flood sirens installed after the tragedy wailed eerily across the Lockyer Valley town yesterday afternoon, while Deputy Police Commissioner Steve Gollschewski admitted the situation was “very serious”.

The Bureau of Meteorology has warned that the worst is not over, with the slow-moving cell set to continue its relentless saturation of a corner of Queensland stretching for thousands of square kilometres.

Old North Road at Rocksberg closed due to flooding. Picture: Richard Walker

Authorities received almost 1000 calls for help in just 24 hours, including dozens of swiftwater rescues.

Some areas, already smashed with a month’s worth of rain in less than two days, face further falls of up to 300mm with the weather system set to wreak havoc on the southeast until at least Sunday.

Some residents in the Lockyer Valley were urged to evacuate as water levels rose alarmingly in a matter of hours, before Grantham was completely cut off in a frightening reminder of the carnage that swept the region 11 years ago.

With aerial rescue crews trying to pluck stranded residents from rooftops, Deputy Commissioner Gollschewski said he appreciated the unfolding drama would be “of great concern” to the community still baring the scars of the horrific 2011 floods, but he could not yet compare the latest deluge to that disaster.

“The comparisons with 2011 is something we really can’t comment on at the moment because the situation is still unfolding,” he said.

“Clearly we are responding and taking this very seriously – we have people trapped on the roofs of houses.

“We don’t really know what the situation is there but I’m sure as it unfolds that will become clearer.”

The moment a man is rescued from his ute in floodwaters at Westbrook Creek, near Toowoomba. Picture: Brian Sampson

However, he said measures activated since findings from a commission of inquiry in 2015 had so far been effective.

“You’ve got to remember with Grantham, there has been mitigations put in place as a result of what happened in 2011 and I’m advised that so far, what has been placed has worked,” he said.

But some residents slammed the siren system as a multimillion-dollar failure, saying the warnings did not arrive until it was already too late.

Streets became ferocious river rapids as floating debris smashed into power poles, trees and parked cars.

Withcott resident Donna Crosby lives on a property with her husband in nearby Postmans Ridge and has seen the force of the floods throughout today as the nearby Rocky Creek swelled and broke its banks.

Flooding in Grantham. The town is expected to have its worst rainfall since the deadly floods of 2011. Picture: VanZelst Restorations

“We have not seen this since 2011,” she said.

“The creek broke its banks everywhere this morning.

“We actually had a site where we lost our sheds in 2011 and we still had some stuff, like a tank, down there but that all floated off this morning and it’s 100 metres from the creek and it’s been under water this morning.”

The current water levels ripping through Grantham are comparable to what the town faced at the deadly flood event in 2011, according to a longtime resident.

Allan Marshall, who lost his father to the 2011 floods, said he and his neighbours in the newly-built estate have been cut off by the floodwaters.

He said the level was close to the floods 11 years ago, but without the surge of water that made them so deadly.

Roads inundated in Grantham. Picture: Facebook

“We’re up in the new estate and it’s flooded at the bottom of the roundabout (connecting the estate), so you can’t even get out of the estate,” he said.

“It’s probably about 2.5m deep at the roundabout, and that’s on the high side.

“I’d say it’s the same, not the surge of water but the water height is close.”

Danielle Moloney from the Grantham Farm Workers Lodge said she is trapped on her property until the water recedes.

“The Grantham township looks like a lake just appeared out of nowhere,” she said.

“We have a dam on our property and it has turned into a mass of water that goes right around our property.

“It just had not stopped raining.”

Elsewhere across the southeast, hundreds of roads were cut, including a section of the Bruce Highway near Caboolture, with traffic chaos expected to last for days.

Almost 50 schools were closed early, while the Sunshine Coast copped an extraordinary deluge over a 36-hour period.

Torrential rain and major flooding around Brisbane and a road closed at Young's crossing road in Bray Park. Picture: NCA NewsWire / John Gass

Across the southeast, beaches were closed and sports carnivals were cancelled, including the Oztag State Cup, which had brought hundreds of junior footballers from across Queensland to the Sunshine Coast.

BOM meteorologist Felem Hanniffy said the slow-moving system meant the primary risk for intense rainfall remained in areas which received significant totals on Friday.

He said areas to receive the most rain included the Lockyer Valley, northern suburbs of Brisbane and into the Sunshine Coast and southern Wide Bay.

“Given the fact we’ve already seen significant rainfall, that’s a significant concern,” he said.

“The trough system has slowed up over that area and the upper feature driving it all is very slow moving so there’s nothing to shift that trough further north.

“At this stage, the particular risk is the Lockyer Valley area into Saturday after we’ve already seen intense falls today.

“The slow-moving nature of the current system is causing difficulty in the models so there’s potential that we could still have that risk early into Sunday,” he said.