“Nothing can survive this water”: Record breaking floods in Gulf, families being choppered out as rain heads south

Queensland Police have urged everyone near the remote community of Burketown to flee as record breaking floods hit the region.

Queensland police are urging residents of the remote community of Burketown to abandon their homes and evacuate as record-breaking floods hammer the region.

“Police are strongly urging all remaining residents to leave the community of Burketown as soon as possible,” A QPS spokesperson said.

“This is particularly relevant to the elderly and people with young children.”

Sewerage lines have already been damaged during the ognoing flooding, which has seen families within the community take to the roads, skies and other avenues to escape earlier in the week.

A QPS spokesperson said that power throughout the town will be cut off within hours as emergency services continue to battle the elements to keep the community safe.

“Sewerage to the town has been compromised and power to the town will be cut off today. It is not safe for people to remain.

“Residents who have chosen to remain should seek assistance from police.”

EARLIER:

Choppers and boats are becoming the vehicle of choice for many outback families as a tropical low works its way over Burketown, Doomadgee, Mount Isa and Cloncurry.

Owners of the Tirranna Springs Roadhouse outside Burketown fled their home via helicopter on Tuesday.

Roadhouse owner Jil Wilson said the rain washed away five years of hard work overnight.

“We all got choppered out of Tirranna. The water is still rising and more rain is predicted which may lead to flash flooding,” Mrs Wilson said.

“Some building roofs are still visible...The water reaches from Tirranna all the way to Burketown with hardly any ground visible. It’s massive.”

The Wilson family is evacuated from Tirranna Roadhouse. The family was able to take one dog with them.

Since the rescue, more water has come down and the level is still rising.

“20,000L full water tanks have been picked up by the current and washed away,” Mrs Wilson told the Townsville Bulletin.

“Fences have buckled, all personal belongings are in the flooded house. All our animals – horses, pigs, chickens, ducks, turkeys, geese, dogs – have been washed away.”

Mrs Wilson said in January and February as the normal wet season hit, all the animals were moved to high ground paddocks.

“But the force and sheer quantity of water has come unexpectedly and without warning and by the time that became apparent it was too late to get anything out,” she said.

“Nothing can survive this water. Especially as it’s cold now and still wet for several weeks to come with the amount of water coming down the catchment areas.”

Mrs Wilson said they were not the only ones to lose everything.

“So many will lose houses, livestock, pets and livelihoods.”

Since being evacuated, the Wilson family has been helping Burketown residents lift up their belongings.

“The masses of water seems to have blown everyone away leaving everyone unprepared,” Mrs Wilson said.

“Now we are helping to evacuate people from Burketown, elderly first then kids with families and so on.”

Gregory isolated

Mr Connolly took this pictures of Bidunggu (Gregory) on Thursday. "I have never seen the water this high before," he said.

Bidunggu (Gregory) local Shaquelle Connolly lives 85km down the road from Tirranna and said he’s never seen floodwater this high before, with water coming under houses and over the bonnets of cars.

“It’s mostly following the river and just got too high and came up the creeks,” Mr Connolly told the Townsville Bulletin.

“It’s looking better now and it hasn’t risen last night. I don’t think we need to be evacuated at the moment and we’re expecting a food drop tomorrow.”

Food is being flown into the remote community as residents are completely blocked in by water on all sides.

Weather warnings

Friday's cloud cover.

Every single river between Burketown and Cloncurry is at major flooding level with flood warnings issued.

The Bureau of Meteorology is warning locals on the Nicholson, Gregory and Leichhardt Rivers that levels are likely to exceed the 2011 record flood levels, surpassing the level late Friday and peaking on Sunday.

There are also predictions of storms on Sunday in Doomadgee, Burketown and Normanton.

Cloncurry rivers overflowing

The Leichhardt River reached a record 17m high at Lorraine Station.

Lorraine Station near Cloncurry measured the Leichhardt River at 17 metres high this morning – the highest they’ve ever seen it.

Station manager Michael Crisp said the water is slowing dropping, dipping by 3cm today.

“We’ve had 377mm across March,” Mr Crisp said.

“Our worst day was March 4 where we got 102mm.”

Flooding in the Lorraine Station paddocks

Mr Crisp said in the last 10 years, the area hasn’t seen a wet season this sustained.

“We got into the habit of mustering and selling cattle early because there wasn’t enough feed,” he said.

“So we’ve got full staff at the moment because we were expecting to start mustering.”

All the water from Lorraine Station is running north towards Burketown.

Flooding inside the Lorraine Station compound

Rainfall today

Bureau of Meteorology weather stations have been recording absurd rainfall totals.

The hardest hit was the Century Mine weather station – only 65km west of Bidunggu and 115km from Tirranna – which has recorded 752mm in just 10 days.

This massive figure at the zinc mine is being driven by daily rainfall totals of 100.2mm (March 4), 313.4mm (March 8) and 220.2mm (March 9).

It deserves repeating: 313.4mm in 24 hours.

Flooding in the Lorraine Station compound

Burketown Airport near the Tirranna Roadhouse has recorded 426.4mm of intense rainfall since March began – including 173.2mm on March 7, the day the Wilson family were flown out.

All this is headed south.

Yesterday, Julia Creek recorded 170mm of rain in 24 hours, Cloncurry was drenched by 60.8mm and Mt Isa copped 86.8mm.

The road between Julia Creek and Cloncurry closed again temporary, but reopened today provided drivers travelled with “extreme care” before closing again.

Of the sixteen main roads in the Julia Creek area, fifteen are currently closed to all traffic.

The McKinlay Shire Council described most of their local roads as “black soil boggy, all creeks and gullies impassable”.

Originally published as “Nothing can survive this water”: Record breaking floods in Gulf, families being choppered out as rain heads south