‘Worst yet to come’: 1700 homes at serious risk amid 1000mm North Qld deluge
Townsville residents who have evacuated their homes have been told it’s not yet safe to return as the fallout of a deadly deluge that’s dumped as much as 1.2m of rain continues. It comes amid record river peaks.
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Residents who have evacuated their homes in Townsville have been told it is not yet safe to return as the fallout of a deadly deluge that has dumped as much as 1.2m of rain on parts of north Queensland continues.
It comes as a severe weather warning remains current after a night of torrential rain hammered communities north of Townsville, with schools out, roads cut and thousands without power across the region.
Six evacuation centres remain open, with nearly 400 people taking shelter across Townsville, Ingham and Cardwell.
Speaking at a media conference in Brisbane on Monday before flying north later in the day, Premier David Crisafulli warned residents in Townsville’s “black zones” to stay away.
“Ultimately, that flooding situation will be impacted by the amount of rainfall, the tides and dam releases. So all of that information will be provided as it can be, but our advice to residents in the black zone at the moment is to stay out of that zone and stay safe,” he said.
Of his plan to travel north, Mr Crisafulli said it would help facilitate service delivery.
“And I want those communities to know that they matter to us … these communities form a really important part of the fabric of who we are,” he said.
Burdekin River at Sellheim peaked at 19.14 metres earlier on Monday, surpassing the previous record of 18.47m.
That previous record was set on February 4, 2011 after Cyclone Yasi made landfall near Mission Beach. River height levels for Burdekin River at Sellheim have only been recorded since 2002.
In nearby Charters Towers, there has been a disruption to water supply and residents have been told to conserve water use to emergency use only – drinking and toilets.
Nearly 30 Telstra mobile network sites and 1000 landline services are down, affecting mobile and landline services for several communities in the far north.
Telstra Regional General Manager Rachel Cliffe said network sites have back up power which are keeping many services running and teams were working to hook up generators to sites that have run flat.
“We have teams on the ground across the region doing all they can to access affected sites when it’s safe to do so and bring services back online as quickly as possible.”
As the Bureau of Meteorology revealed the low behind the weather chaos is weakening, Deputy Premier Jarrod Bleijie said his focus would be on making sure essential food services were available for the impacted region.
It comes after a Coles Ingham duty manager Marcia Glindemann accessed her store by boat on Sunday and multiple supermarkets in the North have bare shelves.
“This allowed us to donate food and essential items that were needed at the local evacuation centre,” a Coles spokesman said of Ms Glindemann’s trip to her store.
Mr Bleijie said the state government and major supermarkets had anticipated the seriousness of the event and he had been assured there was six weeks worth of food and supplies in North Queensland.
“The product was moved there before the floods hit in anticipation for what was going likely to unfold, we’ve seen situations where there has been some shops that have been closed,” he said.
He said the state had “mechanisms in place” to get food to people cut off in remote areas.
“If people are stuck and have no food or drink at their home, they just need to sing out, and we’ll ensure they get food and water, fresh water to their homes, ” he said.
Bureau of Meteorology senior forecaster Matt Collopy told the media on Monday that North Queensland had seen extreme rainfall with totals of 600mm recorded between Innisfail and Townsville, with the highest values reaching 1.2 metres.
He said there was still 150mm to 300mm expected between Tully and Guru in the coming days with isolated falls of up to 500mm.
“We’re still seeing very significant rain. But to put these numbers in context, over the past two days, we’ve been talking about higher falls reaching up to 600,” he said.
“So we are seeing a gradual easing in both the modelling and also what we’re observing on the ground and on the radar imagery we’re seeing right now.”
He said despite the low causing the weather starting to weaken there was still a threat of dangerous and life threatening floods.
A severe weather warning for the areas from Tully to Ayr has been updated on Monday morning.
In the 24 hours to Monday morning, 655mm at Cardwell Gap, 654mm at Paluma, 525mm at Rollingstone, 501mm at Paradise Lagoon, 476mm at Halifax, 472mm at Gairloch, 455mm at Ingham Airport, 364mm at Trebonne (inland from Ingham), and 326mm at Upper Black River.
More than 1000mm of rain has already fallen between Townsville and Ingham in just two days, with more than 1700 homes in “black zones” predicted to be inundated with water on Monday.
The Ross River was expected to hit 2m on Monday afternoon.
Mr Crisafulli again urged people to stay off the roads, particularly the Bruce Highway.
It comes as dozens of people were rescued overnight on Sunday, including the driver of a B-double full of bananas near Charters Towers.
The flooding has already claimed the life of a woman who fell from an SES boat in Ingham.
The 63-year-old woman was among six people on an SES boat with two crew when it struck a tree on Rutledge St and flipped about 9.20am on Sunday.
Mr Crisafulli expressed his sorrow for the town, both on the death of a local woman on Sunday as well as the devastation.
“No doubt, it is a very sad time, and it’s a small community. It’s a tight knit community, and we wish them well,’ he said.
“We’re talking about people’s homes, their businesses. There will be immense damage to the agricultural sector there, and that is a very strong and resilient community, but this is a flood the likes of which is only seen a handful of times.”
He said more resources would be sent into the town, with the ADF on standby.
“They (ADF) agreed overnight to the use of some of their assets if required, we did preposition swift water rescue crews there because they’re not very big, and there aren’t swift water rescue crews normally there.
“I want to assure the community that more resources will follow, and particularly with the clean-up, they’re not going to be on their own,” he said.
Mr Crisafulli said dam release timelines would be looked into as part of a review into the flood response.
“They operate under the guidelines that’s been set and as part of any review, of course, that will be looked at, and the council will have to look at that, but that’s something that we’ll focus on in the future,” he said.
Cardwell had also been hammered, with an emergency warning issued just before midnight on Sunday, with authorities saying people should move to higher ground because of dangerous flooding in low-lying areas, with people affected urged to move to higher ground immediately.
There were reports to Higgins Storm Chasing of floodwaters going into the second-floor of some properties at Cardwell, and homes and businesses in Ingham completely inundated.
Ergon Energy said just shy of 11,000 properties from Cardwell to the Burdekin were without power on Monday.
“It’s been an awful few days for thousands of North Queenslanders, and our teams are doing all they can to get our communities back on track, wherever possible,” a spokesman said.
“Ingham is bearing the brunt of this disaster: there’s barely a square metre of ground that’s not under water … along with the rest of the community, our substation remains swamped and there’s no way of beginning power restoration until water levels recede.”
Ergon was forced to switch off the Cardwell substation overnight on Sunday, cutting power to about 1000 households.
“Giru substation is also offline, and we’re continuing to patrol and monitor low-lying areas around Townsville to keep everyone safe,” the spokesman said.
“We’ll try to get into Giru substation, and will know more after we’ve been able to do a thorough assessment.
Mr Crisafulli earlier reiterated the situation in north Queensland was a “really, really big flooding event”.
Townsville residents in several “black zones” – Idalia, Oonoonba, Rosslea, Hermit Park, Cluden and Railway Estate – were ordered to leave their homes by midday on Sunday as the Ross River levels rose drastically.
On Sunday afternoon an emergency alert was issued for Bluewater residents to evacuate, despite the town not being in the “black zone” areas
SEE OUR FLOOD MEGA GALLERY HERE
On Sunday night, the alert was cancelled, but police warned it was not safe for evacuated residents to return to the small town north of Townsville.
Townsville Police Detective Superintendent Graeme Paine said emergency crews were concerned with the number of people in the black zone refusing to listen to evacuation advice.
“Our messaging is that if you’re in the black zone, you need to leave,” he said.
“The modelling has predicted certain impacts; what we’re doing is in line with that.”
A total of 41 swift water rescues were conducted in the 24 hours until 3pm on Sunday.
Townsville Local Disaster Management Group co-ordinator Zach Dawes said mapping showed 1700 homes in these black zones were predicted to be inundated with water on Monday.
About 10 per cent of the community chose to stay, doorknocking in the “black zone” revealed, and Townsville LDMG chair Andrew Robinson said this was concerning.
“It is concerning because our indications are there will be inundation throughout that black zone,” he said.
“They may think they are safe at home, however they will become an island.”
Police were also investigating after thieves stole an Ergon Energy worker’s car while a crew was responding to a fallen tree on a house in Townsville.
Raging flood waters have caused major damage to a bridge on the Bruce Highway north of Townsville. The Ollera Creek Bridge in Mutarnee has been completely swept away, with only guard rails left standing.
All motorists are urged to find an alternative if travelling between Ingham and Townsville.
About 2am Sunday, crews were called to Bayswater Rd at Currajong where a large tree had fallen down and partially landed on a home.
An Ergon Energy crew was called to assist with power outages when their car was brazenly stolen by thieves.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese expressed his sadness at the death of the woman in Ingham.
“My thoughts are with the family and the entire community at this awful time,” Mr Albanese said.
“The full support of the Queensland and federal governments is being deployed to assist with these floods.
“I have spoken with Premier Crisafulli and reiterated we will supply whatever resources are required to deal with this event.”
Deputy Leader for the Katter’s Australian Party and member for Hinchinbrook Nick Dametto said he had not seen this amount of rainfall in such a short amount of time in more than 30 years. “We’re talking flood levels that may exceed some of the greatest floods that we’ve ever seen,” he said.
Deputy Police Commissioner Shane Chelepy said the Ingham tragedy highlighted the reality of the dangers and risks of floods.
Forecasters say South East Queensland will be mostly spared from wild weather with the region likely to only see a few scattered showers on Monday and mostly dry conditions for the rest of the week.
Originally published as ‘Worst yet to come’: 1700 homes at serious risk amid 1000mm North Qld deluge
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