In photos: The big Sunshine Coast floods that damaged thousands of homes
Nambour residents woke on Monday morning to flooding locals described as worse than in January 2011. But as our archives show, there have been even bigger floods, one of which resulted in more than 1800 homes being damaged.
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Nambour residents woke on Monday morning to flooding locals described as worse than in January 2011.
The Bureau of Meteorology showed Nambour, Palmwoods, Eudlo and Woombye were the hardest hit, each recording more than 300mm of rain dumped in the 24 hours to 9am Monday.
It comes as the deluge from Ex-Tropical Cyclone Alfred continues to wreak havoc in south east Queensland.
Nambour resident since 2009 Alan Mullen said in some areas the water has come up higher than during the 2011 flood event.
“I went past some of my usual jogging haunts this morning and thought bloody heck it is a lot deeper than it usually floods, I have seen some places slightly deeper in the past, but out of all the floods I’ve seen in Nambour this is pretty big,” Mr Mullen said.
“The rain was just relentless.”
One of the biggest floods the Sunshine Coast has seen was in 1992 when an inland sea was created stretching the Sunshine Coast as an inland sea, with water covering 1000 hectares and locals riding in boats instead of cars.
More than 1880 homes were damaged across the Coast including 440 in Coolum, 230 in Marcoola, 120 in Mudjimba, another 440 in Pacific Paradise, 250 in Bradman Ave, Broadwater Ave Maroochydore, 85 in Bli Bli and another 300 in other rural locations.
Long time locals will never forget the scenes on Friday and Saturday, February 21 and 22.
The Maroochy River broke its banks along Bradman Ave at 9.30pm on the Friday, rising 30cm in the space of 30 minutes.
Two hundred people were evacuated from the Maroochy River Resort to Buderim Mountain State School and many Bradman Ave residents followed suit.
Houses and caravans at Golden Beach were flooded and businesses at the eastern end of Bowman Rd and lower end of Bulcock St, Caloundra, went under up to 0.5m of water.
The lake at Mountain Creek rose 4m, reportedly flooding five homes to start with.
The volume and force of the water running towards it washed away a bridge and the resultant swirling torrent ate away the backyard and foundations of one house, leaving it hanging.
Roads were cut and parked cars were swallowed. Many residents spent a sleepless night, trying to get their belongings to higher ground.
The Department of Family Services set up shop in the Pacific Paradise Bowls Club, offering emergency cash to families for food and blankets.
Bli Bli was also hard hit. Homes were awash with water higher than the levels recorded in the 1974 and 1983 floods.
THE RESCUE OF RAY GRACE IN NAMBOUR
In the 1983 floods, big-hearted Sunshine Coast Ray Grace had been trapped inside his own car dealership on Coronation Drive at Nambour by a massive wall of water that surged down adjoining Petrie Creek, sweeping away everything in its path.
All the employees, including Graham Chapman, who was miraculously plucked from under the swirling floodwaters with a split second to spare, managed to escape in time … all except Ray.
“I got trapped inside. Luckily I was able to climb up onto a beam holding the roof up. I tried to kick my way out but was trapped in there overnight,” he told the Sunshine Coast Daily back in 2007.
The next morning, police drove their rescue boat into the workshop, tore a sheet of corrugated iron off the roof and got him out.
While he survived the flood, his business wasn’t so fortunate.
Including 14 cars that were washed down the creek, the damage bill reached $400,000.
The insurance company had paid $250,000 of that before it went broke.
“It was hard work, but we managed to rebuild,” he said.
Incredibly, the business copped it a second time in the floods of 1992, although not to the same extent.
In the 1992 flood, a flooded Petrie Creek divided Nambour and swept knee-deep through businesses in the main street.
Campbells Timber and Hardware lost $500,000 in stock as it was half-submerged while Ray Grace Mitsubishi, near the Nambour RSL, and Northpoint Metro Ford also lost hundreds-of-thousands of dollars in parts, office equipment and fit-outs.
In Noosa Shire, council staff joined with State Emergency Service volunteers in emergency operations, closing and opening roads, clearing debris, and carrying out immediate road repairs.
On June 22, 1983 many parts of the Sunshine Coast were inundated by flood waters when Petrie Creek, Cornmeal Creek and the Maroochy River broke their banks.
The day became known as Wet Wednesday after about 250mm of rain fell in a short period of time.
There was widespread damage and flooding to buildings, roads, bridges and farms with Maroochydore and Nambour being the worst affected areas.
IN PICTURES, FLOODING IN 2011
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