Residents trapped in homes, motorists pulled from cars as storm lashes Hervey Bay

Confronting scenes emerged from Hervey Bay, where residents were trapped in their homes and motorists had to be pulled from cars after a near-stationary storm lashed the town, causing flash flooding.

Queensland Police issued an emergency declaration for Hervey Bay, about three hours north of Brisbane, as it was hit by the remnants of ex-tropical cyclone Alfred on Sunday, with roads, properties and the local supermarket flooded in a matter of minutes.

“Hervey Bay is absolutely flooding,” a local business owner said on TikTok.

“We’re out of power in the shop. We can’t get down there at the moment because it’s flooding everywhere in Hervey Bay. It is absolutely crazy.”

Mayor George Seymour described the flash flooding as extraordinary.

“There’s flash flooding right across Hervey Bay; a lot of water in properties, more than 20 people rescued,” he said.

“It’s been an extraordinary flash-flooding event … I’ve never seen it like this in my 20 years in Hervey Bay.”

Acting Police Commissioner Shane Chelepy said police responded to 35 emergency calls, “including 14 for people that were in danger, in risk of losing their life”, and an emergency declaration was issued.

“We’ve deployed police and swiftwater rescue crews to rescue people from their houses and their cars,” Chelepy said.

“Police assisted staff at Urangan Retirement Village to move residents from the lower floors to the upper floors to ensure that they were kept safe. We also evacuated the Hervey Bay Watchhouse, where we had five people … and relocated those people to Maryborough.”

A temporary police station was established at the Saint James School and the Hervey Bay Baptist Church became a makeshift evacuation centre.

Thunder began in the Fraser Coast town before dawn.

“It was a really strange event this morning because the thunder lasted for about four hours, non-stop,” resident John Wilson said.

“You know, usually thunder lasts for 10 to 15 minutes, but it kept going and kept going, hour on hour.

“We got huge lightning cracks, and then we started getting insanely heavy rain.”

Flash flooding swamped cars, houses and the local Woolworths supermarket in Pialba. People had to abandon their cars near the Officeworks store, Wilson said.

Two people had to be rescued from a car in Urangan about 7am, while firefighters carried out 10 evacuations and nine swiftwater rescues.

Surface winds associated with Alfred had converged around Hervey Bay, creating a near-stationary storm, the weather bureau said.

“Importantly, the area of surface wind convergence is not moving, and so thunderstorms are continually developing over the top of Hervey Bay leading to huge rainfall totals,” a Bureau of Meteorology spokesperson said.

More than 72,300 lightning strikes were recorded.

In the 24 hours to 9am on Sunday, Hervey Bay received 261 millimetres of rain. Of that, 108 millimetres fell in one hour, and 233 millimetres in the six hours to 7.30am.

“We want to thank everyone as we continue to respond to that unfolding situation,” Premier David Crisafulli said on Sunday afternoon.

Get alerts on significant breaking news as happens. Sign up for our Breaking News Alert.