Elderly driver missing after being swept away in floodwaters

As a raft of flood warnings remain in place on Sunday for vast areas of Queensland and NSW, an elderly man was missing after being swept away in floodwaters.

The man, driving an SUV towing a caravan, was trying to cross a flooded causeway at Bretti, about 100 kilometres west of Taree in NSW, late on Saturday night after the Barnard River broke its banks.

His car was swept into the floodwaters and neither it nor the driver have been found.

The search for the missing driver has resumed on Sunday.Credit: Kate Geraghty

A nearby campground was inundated by flooding, stranding about 20 campers who were confirmed safe and did not want to be evacuated.

The search for the missing driver resumed on Sunday as floodwaters in that area started to recede.

Senior Bureau of Meteorology forecaster Jonathan How said the storm clouds had cleared in most of eastern Queensland and NSW, but flood and wind warnings would remain for now.

“That water will take quite some time to flow through so we are expecting those flood warnings to persist,” he said.

Parts of Brisbane, the Gold Coast, its hinterland, Capricornia and the Northern Tropical Coast received more than 50mm of rain on Saturday, but How said northern parts of the Sunshine Coast towards Wide Bay copped the heaviest totals, with some areas recording up to 300 millimetres.

“Around the northern suburbs [of Brisbane] up towards the Sunshine Coast, we did see between 100 and 200 millimetres too ... and falls in excess of 100 millimetres towards the Gold Coast hinterland,” he said.

Further north, the Bruce Highway was reopened on Sunday between Gympie and Maryborough following heavy rain and flash flooding.

How said Brisbane had largely been spared from potential flooding as the weather cleared to a mostly sunny day and a top of 32 degrees on Sunday.

But while the capital dodged a bullet, areas further west were not so lucky, experiencing the worst flooding in 50 years, with records surpassing the 1974 floods.

On Sunday, Premier David Crisafulli said several warnings remained in place for rivers and catchments across the state, with water still rising in some.

He said more than 140 state-controlled roads remained closed, including the Bruce Highway near Bowen. And while Proserpine Airport had reopened, six schools would be closed on Monday.

As floodwaters cut roads and isolated communities, many residents were forced to flee on Friday, including the entire town of Avadale, a south-west community of about 30 people.

On Sunday, Crisafulli said those residents remained in Quilpie, adding that when they return, every property will be affected after the worst flooding the area had ever seen.

Central Queensland’s Stonehenge, Jundah and Windorah were also hit hard after some areas recorded up to 600mm – almost double the average annual rainfall.

Crisafulli has activated personal hardship assistance, along with concessional loans and freight subsidies to help primary producers in a string of western Queensland communities.

“You’ve got somewhere in the order of a million head of cattle, a million sheep who are impacted at the moment, and we could see stock losses into the hundreds of thousands.

“We have to get fodder to try, wherever humanly possible, to keep stock alive. In the longer term, we have to make sure that we can help these communities rebuild.”

At a disaster management meeting on Saturday, Police Minister Dan Purdie said the state had deployed “a lot of assets on the ground” and would continue to provide support in affected regions.

With AAP

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