No let-up as flood damages bill soars

Thousands of people are stranded or on flood alert across the eastern seaboard as torrential rain pounds communities.

Discount Variety Store employee Sarah Fish, left, cleans up in Lismore. Picture:

Thousands of Australians ­remain stranded or on flood alert across vast swathes of the eastern seaboard as torrential rain continues to pound coastal communities, with the damage bill likely to be counted in the ­billions.

While Sydney “dodged a bullet”, with floodwaters not reaching the levels experienced during the disastrous floods of March last year, evacuation orders ­remained in place in many locations across NSW as an unpredictable weather system confounded forecasts.

In southeast Queensland the clean-up from the weekend had to be postponed as Brisbane City Council issued an emergency alert, warning that thunderstorms could continue into the weekend, with severe conditions forecast for areas north to Bundaberg.

Residents were on Thursday night bracing for another deluge that the Bureau of Meteorology warned was an “incredible threat” to the region.

Evacuation sirens were sounded in the Lockyer Valley town of Grantham, west of Brisbane – where 12 people died during the 2011 floods – after 80mm of rain fell on the already sodden catchment during the morning.

Xavier College students take a break at 4am as they help hospital staff and emergency services personnel to transform their school into a hospital and emergency department. Syl de Wit, left, Jack Kirwan, Tim de Wit, Jackson Falvey, Jackson Priest, Tyler Adamson, Diego Garcia-Lyon (not a student of the school) and Toby Nowell, 17 (lying)

Storms hit the southeast on Wednesday night, dumping 48mm across Brisbane and flooding recently opened streets.

Rivers in Ipswich were again on the rise, with authorities issuing a major flood warning for the city west of Brisbane.

Controlled flows from Wivenhoe Dam were slowed on Thursday after intense rain pummelled the state’s southeast. The volume of release from Wivenhoe was slowed from 3300 cubic metres a second on Wednesday to 3000 on Thursday afternoon.

Schools in southeast Queensland will be closed on Friday.

In Sydney about 130,000 residents in the Hawkesbury-­Nepean Valley continued to face the threat of serious flooding, with a major flood warning­ issued for Windsor on Thursday night, where water was peaking at 12.2m.

Evacuated residents were unlikely to be able to return to their homes in western Sydney before the weekend, the SES said. Power was cut to 650 low-lying homes in the North Richmond and Lower Portland areas.

Adding to those problems, a possible new front coming up from the south on the weekend may bring more heavy rain to Sydney.

A patient arrives at the makeshift emergency department at Xavier College in Ballina. Picture: Liam Mendes

WaterNSW halved earlier spill projections from Warragamba Dam to about 300-350 ­gigalitres a day after the Bureau of Meteorology cancelled severe weather warnings for Sydney, the Illawarra and Central Tablelands. However, severe thunderstorm warnings were still in place for parts of Northern Tablelands and a severe weather warning was issued for parts of the mid-north coast and Hunter.

Emergency services warned that many areas remained waterlogged and were liable to flood even if rains eased.

Warnings were issued for the Clarence River, with major flooding expected at Maclean and moderate flooding at Grafton and Ulmarra.

Treasurer Josh Frydenbergs said that damages caused by the floods could cost “billions”.

Insurance companies have received more than 60,000 claims from NSW and Queensland with an estimated collective value of $900m. Most claims made were for property damage. Of the claims, 46,000 were made in Queensland. Insurance companies said many more claims were expected in coming days.

The clean-up has begun in Lismore and surrounding areas in northern NSW after floodwaters poured through hundreds of homes and businesses and left at least four people dead.

Mullumbimby locals Angie and Greg Wilton were among the lucky few. The floodwaters had crept only as far as their backyard and also spared their business, Scratch Patisserie, located in town. “Being a food service, we ­decided the best thing we could do was provide food that people could stand there and scoff really quickly,” Ms Wilton said.

“We’ve been handing out sausage rolls to whoever we can.”

Along with their sons Archie, 10, and Monte, 7, the couple handed out more than 150 rolls on Thursday, and were also baking bread to supply the local IGA.

“It’s a tight-knit community – people have banded together,” Ms Wilton said.

The unpredictable weather in southeast Queensland caused problems for Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk, who was blamed for the premature closure of Brisbane schools on Thursday after issuing an unclear warning to parents north of the city to pick their children up as storms advanced.

Warning of dangerous storms stretching from Bundaberg to Moreton Bay, Ms Palaszczuk told parents to collect their children when it was safe to do so. It led to some schools across Brisbane closing.

Independent Education Union Queensland secretary Terry Burke, who represents 17000 teachers and staff in private schools, said anxieties were high after dangerous storms pummelled Brisbane earlier in the day and people were confused.

“The message could have been a bit more distinct,” he said.

Additional reporting: Alasdair Belling