Qld weather: Widespread rainfall forecast, as major flooding continues
Weather chaos continues around Queensland with major flood warnings in place after another day of heavy rain that is continuing into the evening in some parts.
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Weather chaos continues around Queensland on Saturday, from the Outback where isolated communities are facing the loss of millions of heads of sheep and cattle, to the state’s southern corner, where the Bruce Highway is cut amid major flood warnings.
A severe weather system is smashing the Wide Bay again, with warnings current from Bundaberg to Gympie.
As of 8pm on Saturday, the weather bureau was warning an “unstable airmass combined with a weak trough” was producing heavy rainfall, with a thunderstorm warning current for Bundaberg, Gladstone, Hervey Bay and the Rockhampton regions.
The Bruce Highway is blocked at Apple Tree Creek after Childers was battered by a storm late on Saturday.
The Lamington Bridge and Granville Bridge have both closed to traffic at Maryborough.
The Mary River is expected to reach the major flood level at Tiaro in the coming hours.
As of 4.45pm, the Mary River at Tiaro was at 11.94m and rising, and is likely to exceed the major flood level of 12m.
Minor flooding is also occurring at Maryborough and is expected to peak overnight Saturday into Sunday. The Mary River at Maryborough may reach around 5.90m overnight Saturday into Sunday, with minor flooding.
Two people were rescued south of Mackay after their ute became stuck in floodwater, with emergency services responding to the incident at Marlborough-Sarina Rd near Funnel Ck, Nebo, just after 7pm.
A lightning strike reportedly caused a fire after impacting the roof of a house at Lilly Pilly Dr, Burrum Heads, just after 8.30pm. Firefighters responded quickly and everyone inside the dwelling was accounted for.
The flooding in Queensland’s central and southern west is now worse than the 1974 floods.
Queensland’s Police and Emergency Services Minister Dan Purdie attended a disaster management meeting chaired by Premier David Crisafulli on Saturday.
“Locals in those areas are telling us they’re seeing water in areas they didn’t back in 1974,” he said.
Rescues at Maryborough, Gootchie and Kia Ora
“But we have repositioned well. We have a lot of assets on the ground. We’ve done a lot of evacuations and door knocks, particularly around Adavale and Jundah.”
He said there were extra emergency crews placed where needed.
Since 9am on Saturday, the heaviest rainfall fell on the Sunshine Coast with 139mm recorded at Eumundi, where localised flooding was reported.
Elsewhere on the Sunshine Coast saw 116mm of rainfall recorded at Yandina, 103mm at Wappa Dam, 102mm at Poona Dam, and 100mm at Ball Lookout, with vast parts of the region recording over 50mm.
There were areas of Brisbane that also recorded over 50mm of rainfall with 58mm recorded at Bracken Ridge and Zillmere, as well as 55mm at Deagon.
On the Gold Coast, the heaviest rainfall was recorded at Tallebudgera Creek Dam and Upper Springbrook with 74mm, while 65mm was recorded at Lower Springbrook.
Mr Purdie said some graziers were talking up to a million head of stock lost of cattle and sheep from the flooding.
“That’s devastating for the farmers, it’s devastating to those communities who thrive off the back of agriculture,” he said.
“I’m not an economist, I think we all know, but that will flow onto the market.
“We’ll just have to wait and see how that transpires, but I think an economist would indicate that when you’ve got a lack of supply, what happens, that might damage the flow effects which will probably reach the dinner table, unfortunately.”
South eastern parts of Queensland have not been spared, with relentless rain and wild weather over the past few days now cutting the Bruce Highway between Gympie and Maryborough and causing the temporary suspension of early competition in the National Surf Life Saving Championships on the Gold Coast.
The nine-day event was due to start on Saturday morning with the Nipper and Youth Championships. But competition was pushed back until at least 1pm. The Open Lifesaving competition, taking place at Bilinga, would proceed for non-water related events.
A hazardous surf warning was issued by Surf Life Saving Queensland on Saturday morning, advising people to stay out of the water and avoid walking near surf-exposed areas.
More than 3000 people around Brisbane, the Gold Coast and Moreton Bay regions were without power because of the weather by 10.45.
As of 2pm there had been 204 requests for help from SES since 2pm with most of the jobs structural, followed by flooding and trees down. Gold Coast, Gympire and the Sunshine Coast received the most calls for help.
A popular bar in the Noosa hinterland had to close after being surrounded by floodwaters.
Severe weather conditions have forced the closure of The Doonan until further notice.
The Doonan management issued a statement advising of the closure.
“Due to severe weather conditions, The Doonan is closed until further notice,” the statement read.
“The safety of our guests and staff is our top priority.
“Stay safe, and we’ll keep you updated as the situation unfolds.”
The venue is located at the intersection of Beddington Rd and Eumundi-Noosa Rd, Doonan.
Swift water rescue crews were seen wading through flood waters at the intersection earlier today.
The Bureau of Meteorology said the Wide Bay and Bundaberg region had copped the brunt of widespread rain that had hit the south eastern areas of Queensland on Friday and into Saturday, and that flood watches were current for South East Coast rivers.
“This includes the Gold Coast, Brisbane and the Gold and Sunshine Coast, and up towards the Wide Bay Area. “For Queensland, flooding is quite a dynamic situation at the moment, and these warnings and watches are being updated regularly as well,” meteorologist Jonathan How said on Saturday morning.
The Mary River is expected to exceed its major flood level on Saturday afternoon, while a warning has been issued for the nearby coastal village of Pacific Haven where the Cherwell River is expected to peak soon.
A moderate flood warning is in place at Gympie where Kidd Bridge has been closed while further downstream of the Mary River, a minor flood warning is current for Maryborough where the Lamington and Granville Bridges are expected to close as a precaution, isolating whole suburbs.
A Seqwater spokesperson said controlled releases were occurring at three gated dams, with North Pine starting releases yesterday afternoon, Somerset overnight and Wivenhoe early Saturday morning.
Releases from the Wivenhoe Dam began at 5:30am and were likely to cause water over the Twin Bridges, Savages Crossing and Colleges Crossing.
It was not expected that Fernvale Bridge, Burtons, Bells Crossing (Kholo Bridge), Mt Crosby Weir Bridge, and Mt Crosby Vehicle Bridge would be affected at this time.
“Releases are projected to continue over the coming days, subject to ongoing rainfall,” the spokesperson said.
“Of our 23 ungated dams, 21 are spilling excess water. The majority of these started spilling around Ex-Tropical Cyclone Alfred and haven’t stopped.
“The flood storage compartments for Wivenhoe and Somerset dams (beyond the drinking water storage) are all nearly 100 per cent available and can temporarily hold large amounts of water.
“Our Flood Operations Centre continues to closely monitor conditions.”
Emergency crews were this morning responding to reports of two vehicles trapped in floodwaters, one at Gootchie and the other near Gympie.
The Bruce Highway was this morning cut at Tiaro.
Mr Purdie reminded locals in SEQ to heed the warnings from local authorities amid more heavy isolated falls.
“The QPS unfortunately in the last 24 hours responded to 35 jobs from Mackay down to the Gold Coast, every single one of them was someone who didn’t heed the warning that entered flood waters,” he said.
“Whether that was children thinking going for a swim in the flood waters was smart or people trying to drive through flood waters.”
Heavy rain is expected to continue in the southern Queensland into Saturday evening.
During the week, rainfall up to 600mm, nearly double the yearly average annual rainfall for inland Queensland has caused flooding not seen in 50 years.
The heaviest rainfall for the week saw 519mm fall at Navarra, which is near Longreach and 467mm fall at Trinidad, located north of Quilpie.
Mr How urged people in Outback Queensland to keep up-to-date with flood watches.
“Through inland parts of the state where flooding has been ongoing for a number of days, this includes multiple rivers, including the Western, Thomson, Barcoo, Bulloo, Paroo, and Warrego rivers – those are for major flooding,” the meteorologist said.
“We also do have flood warnings current for other rivers, such as the Cloncurry, Flinders, Norman and Burdekin rivers.
“Closer to the coast, though, we also are seeing flood warnings around the Townsville area there is some minor flooding ongoing in the Bohle, Ross and Haughton rivers.”
The rainfall saw record-breaking flood levels reached in inland parts of the state, with major flooding of the Thomson River at Stonehenge higher than the January 1974 flood level.
The Thomson River was also expected to break record flood levels at Jundah on Friday evening, as residents of the town moved to higher ground at the town’s golf club, as authorities made efforts to evacuate them.
The evacuation effort at Jundah comes after 27 residents were evacuated from Adavale on Thursday.
While on the ground in Quilpie, Premier David Crisafulli said the flood was worse than 1974 with widespread destruction across west and north west Queensland.
Personal hardship assistance has been activated in the Barcoo, Bulloo, Quilpie and Winton council areas.
“My message to these communities is you are small in numbers but you are big in what you do for our state, both in the economic and social fabric,” the Premier said.
“We will see this through, this will be a long-term recovery operation for a large part of Queensland.”
Mr Crisafulli said aircraft and swift water rescue crews had been deployed.
Hundreds of thousands of acres of country has been inundated which Mr Crisafulli tipped would affect about one million cattle and one million sheep.
“It is always about people in an event … we do have a crisis when it comes to the impact of agriculture,” he said.
“We could see stock losses into the hundreds of thousands.
“Agriculture underpins these communities and they’re going to need help.
“It’s really going to test this community.”
Mr Crisafulli also backed the calls of the Quilpie mayor Ben Hall who slammed the Bureau of Meteorology for not having a weather radar between Quilpie and Charleville. “On that criticism about the radar, they are 100 per cent spot on, 100 per cent, you can’t have such a broad part of the state at the mercy of Mother Nature without giving them some kind of warning,” he told Sunrise.
“We’re backing the mayors really hard in that push, and I can tell you, we won’t let that go.
“That is something that the feds need to step up on.”
Originally published as Qld weather: Widespread rainfall forecast, as major flooding continues
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