North Qld floods: Hinchinbrook Community Support Centre ‘struggling to survive’ inundation

A woman who has lived in Ingham for 35 years says the floods currently ripping through the town were the worst she had ever seen with locals saying they are “struggling to survive”.

A woman who has lived in Ingham for 35 years says the floods currently ripping through the town were the worst she had ever seen with locals saying they are “struggling to survive”.

The community is bearing the brunt of a days-long deluge that has smashed the Townsville region with as much as 1.2m of rain.

Hinchinbrook Community Support Centre chief executive Linda McClelland said in the 35 years she has lived in the area she has never seen it this bad.

The impact of flooding in Ingham from the air. Picture: Queensland Ambulance Service

“I’ve seen a lot of floods come through our district, and none parallel to this one,” she said.

“When we talk about the yardstick of floods, we talk about the 1967 big flood, this one has exceeded that one.

“So it’s caught the community, even the locals aren’t aware, because they prepared for what would be a normal flood, and this has exceeded that.”

The Herbert River at Ingham Pump Station is rising slowly at 14.94 metres, slightly below the flood level in March 1967.

She said it was already quite fatiguing for a number of members of the community.

“Now the community doesn’t have access to any power. And slowly, people’s phones are running out, their fridges have turned off, and they’re starting to lose contact with the outside world.”

Hinchinbrook Community Support Centre has been severely impacted by the floods. Picture: Supplied

Ms McClelland said the Hinchinbrook Community Centre was among those impacted very badly.

“We’ve had workspaces go underwater, quite significantly,” she said.

“We’ve lost most of our vehicle fleet. I’ve got staff cut off all over the district and even through to Townsville and Magnetic Island

“I’ve got staff cut off and can’t get back into work, and I’ve got a lot of staff where for the first time ever, their homes have been inundated, and that’s the living space of their homes has been inundated.

Ms McClelland said her organisation was reflective of the whole community who were “struggling to survive” at the moment.

“In five days or a week’s time, we’re going to be asked to put in this mammoth effort and get ourselves organised and start our service response to the community because we provide a lot of services to our community,” she said.

“Most people in our community would be eligible for services. We’re multi-funded to provide a lot of programs, it’s a need for us to get back and functioning so that we can support not only our normal clientele, but also this emerging social recovery need that will be in our community as well.”

Ms McClelland said she appealed to the government to invest in supporting organisations to get back on track so they could support the community.

“They need to support those organisations as a matter of priority,” she said.

“To get them up and functioning so that they can actually continue to support the community.”

Ms McClelland said she was fortunate to have escaped to Townsville before the road was cut off to co-ordinate all the activities from her end, rather than being in Ingham without power.

Originally published as North Qld floods: Hinchinbrook Community Support Centre ‘struggling to survive’ inundation