Child among three rescued in floods as south-east dams start to swell

Three people, including a child, have been rescued from floodwaters after a rain-hit region was again inundated by heavy downpours.

Southern and central Queensland endured more flash flooding in the early hours of Thursday after experiencing similar conditions on New Year’s Eve.

Paramedics assessed two adults and a child after a vehicle became stuck in floodwaters at 1.46am at Lockrose, west of Brisbane.

A flooded bridge near Kingaroy this week.Credit: Deb Frecklington

The trio were uninjured and did not require hospital treatment, the Queensland Ambulance Service said.

The South Burnett Regional Council, northwest of Brisbane, issued a “watch and act” emergency alert early on Thursday due to flash flooding.

It was cancelled at 10.45am, around the same time as Seqwater advised that its flood operation centre was being activated due to the ongoing flows downstream.

Wivenhoe Dam was using 0.4 per cent of its flood mitigation capacity, and Somerset Dam 1.3 per cent, prompting Seqwater to prepare to release excess water.

“Due to persistent rainfall in the upper catchments and continuing inflows into Somerset Dam and Wivenhoe Dam, flood releases will begin in the coming 6 hours that consider downstream flows in accordance with the Manual of Operational Procedures for Flood Mitigation for Somerset Dam and Wivenhoe Dam,” Seqwater advised.

Parts of the Shire of Banana, west of Bundaberg, had earlier received 57 millimetres of rain in one hour, the Bureau of Meteorology said.

“The severe storm rainfall was generally in the range of 50 to 90 millimetres. Most of this fell in a very short period,” senior forecaster Felim Hanniffy said.

“The top rainfall so far was on the Burnett River with 85 millimetres. [Locations] up on the Fitzroy River and Capricornia had 83 millimetres.”

The town of Kingaroy in the South Burnett area suffered damage to homes and businesses from “one-in-100 year” flood conditions on New Year’s Eve.

Hanniffy said the risk of further severe storms in South Burnett over the next 24 hours was low.

“There will be showers and a chance of storms across those areas but they are not expected to be severe,” he said.

“The focus is shifting to north Queensland over the next few days.”

AAP