Parts of Lismore community return despite rising water levels
Some residents in Lismore have been given the all clear to return to their homes despite water levels continuing to rise.
Some evacuated residents of flood-beaten Lismore residents have been given the all-clear to return to their homes, despite moderate flooding along the Wilsons River.
Residents from low-lying parts of Billinudgel and Mullumbimby and CBD were told they could return with caution to their homes after rivers fell below minor flood levels.
Yesterday, emergency services urged people in the Lismore CBD, Lismore Basin and low-lying areas of east Lismore and Girards Hill to evacuate by 4pm as another flooding event threatened to swamp the region.
Shortly before 6pm on Tuesday evening, the all-clear was given for the Lismore CBD and Basin, as well as low-lying areas of East Lismore and Girards Hill.
Leave home orders remained in place for parts of North and South Lismore.
Heavy rainfall has wreaked havoc on the Northern Rivers and South East Queensland for the second time in a month.
The Bureau of Meteorology was warning major flooding could hit Chinderah, Bandora, Bilambil Heights, Kingscliff and the Richmond, Wilsons, Orara and Bellinger rivers.
Severe weather warnings were removed for Queensland on Tuesday afternoon as conditions eased across the state, with the focus shifting further south.
Fears water levels could top Lismore’s 10.6m levee prompted decisive action by authorities not wanting a repeat of last month’s event when thousands became stranded.
“We’re not expecting the flood level at Lismore to overtop the levee, but it still remains in a major flood warning,” Jackson Browne from the Bureau of Meteorology said.
Rising waters were expected to peak at 8.4m at some point on Tuesday night.
Lismore Mayor Steve Krieg said the city was still struggling to cope with last month’s disaster - and faced constant reminders.
“When you drive past the streets and house upon house of everyone’s lives and livelihood literally in the gutter it is pretty easy to remember what you’re going through,” Mr Krieg said.
“The cleanup is probably the most important stage in all this because it‘s such a visual representation of what we’re living through. Regardless of this weather event, we were still another two or three weeks of cleaning.”
He added that more support, in the form of government funding, would help get the community back on its feet faster
“We’re working really hard to try and get some of this money flowing for businesses, the grants that will give them support … just to try and revive a bit of the town to give people a bit of hope,” he said.
Heavy weather continued to pose danger to communities on the Mid-North Coast, including coastal erosion and landslides shutting down roads.
Parts of northern NSW were expected to receive as much as 300mm of rain in an hour as severe thunderstorms bring localised intense falls.
The greatest concern is the already sodden condition of the soil around flood-affected areas, which could lead to water levels rising even more quickly than last month’s flood.
“We’re very mindful that landslips could see them actually trapped in their property, not because of flooding but because their access roads are cut off,” Emergency Services Minister Stephanie Cooke said.
Ms Cooke also said damaging winds were expected in the evening and into Thursday, which could bring down trees and further cut off roads.
“We’ve got this complex weather system that’s throwing up all of these different challenges to communities right up and down the east coast,” she told parliament.
The remaining warning in NSW is for heavy rainfall, meaning six-hourly totals up to 200mm with locally intense rainfall with embedded thunderstorms of up to 300mm an hour,” the BOM’s Mr Browne said.
“This is likely to lead to flash flooding and we’ve seen that in some of the suburbs of the Gold Coast overnight where accumulated (rainfall) has reached up to 300mm.”
Mr Krieg said emotions were running high, with many residents still facing weeks of cleaning up from the last floods.
“Probably the best way to describe it is frustration, we’ve had a full week hard slog of cleaning... and we’re just coming to the realisation of the damage that (last flood had on us),” he said.
“We’re just sort of coming to terms and trying to settle into some kind of normality and then we have this thrown at us.”
Mr Krieg, who spoke to NCA NewsWire just minutes before the new evacuation order was issued, said the most immediate concern was to provide people with a roof over their heads.
He said he was proud of his community for their resilience and willingness to lend a hand even when physically and emotionally exhausted.
“I’m still on the verge of tears every single day, I make no apology for that,” he said.
“I’m living through it with everyone else... and you know, it is draining and exhausting, but in all honesty, I would rather be nowhere else than doing what I’m doing and meeting the most beautiful people that you’ll ever meet and being there for the community to have a shoulder to cry on.
“And, you know, the good news is I can cry on the community’s shoulder as well ... and we’re all in it together, and we’re working through it as a group as a as a city and we’ll come out the other side bigger and better.”
Storms and heavy rain are also affecting communities closer to Sydney, with trees falling on a home and across roads in Windsor in the city’s northwest.
A separate flood warning has been issued for parts of the Hunter, Hawkesbury Nepean and northwestern NSW rivers.
“Minor to moderate flooding possible for other coastal catchments between the Tweed and Hawkesbury Nepean Valley,” the BOM said.
Warragamba Dam is expected to spill again on Tuesday, with the BOM saying it is “actively monitoring” and updating flood watches and warnings.
Floods are again threatening South East Queensland, with Burleigh Waters copping a drenching of 296mm of rain on Monday after a severe thunderstorm pounded the Gold Coast.
The community of Dalby, west of Brisbane, was inundated overnight, with flash flooding hitting the town from the Myall Creek and Condamine River.
While the rain is not expected to cause the same levels of flooding from four weeks ago, the already-wet catchments meant flooding was still expected in the state’s southeast.
A man and five dogs died before 5am on Monday after a ute and trailer belonging to a pet-moving business was found submerged in floodwaters near Kingsthorpe.
The female driver of the ute was rescued and saved, but the man died.
The body of a second man – aged in his 40s – was found on Tuesday morning more than a day after he was washed away while trying to escape his flooded car near Toowoomba.
The state has now lost 15 lives to the flood disaster in the past six weeks.
Disaster Management Co-ordination Superintendent John Bosnjak told reporters that “some people just don’t seem to listen” to the emergency services warnings.
“Some people have been very unlucky, driving at night into flooded water, being washed away into rapid waters,” he said.
“Other people have just made very poor choices and end up losing their life.”
Emergency services are warning residents along the entire east coast to avoid floodwaters.
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