Rockhampton flood fears: Questions over levees as river rises

Residents in the firing line for flooding tomorrow have criticised a council decision to erect levees in the streets.

Pub worker Tahlia Thomasson (right) and local children play in floodwaters outside the Fitzroy Hotel in Rockhampton. Picture: AAP.

Rockhampton residents in the firing line for Fitzroy River flooding on Thursday have criticised a council decision to erect temporary levees in the middle of their streets.

Rockhampton Regional Council has set up the temporary barriers around parts of the suburb of Beserker on the north side of the river, but they’re street placements means houses on the wrong side will likely be flooded. Reg Dummett has lived in the area for 40 years and his house in on the wrong side of the levee.

Mr Dummett said he had been without power for two days, which was the first time his power had ever been shut off, even during previous Rockhampton floods. “It’s ridiculous. I’m a pensioner and I’m having to run a generator paying I don’t know how much for fuel,” he said

Emergency services personnel check on a temporary levee built to save houses in Berserker, Rockhampton. Picture: Tim Marsden

Neighbour Cecil Balderson has lived in the area for 55 years and had the good fortune to be on the “dry” side of the levee, but even he thinks the council has got it wrong.

“They should have put it down on Water Street. That’s where the water starts to come in,” he said.

“They’ve been in panic mode since the cyclone (in 2015) but I don’t think we’ll even see any water here.”

Ben McMaster, from engineering firm AECOM, oversaw the placement of the barriers, and said the barriers were protecting the largest area possible. “The barriers can protect up to a certain height, and then once you exceed that height you need to look at other options such as permanent-style levees,” Mr McMaster told AAP.

“The issue with Water Street at the moment is it actually dips down, and the barriers wouldn’t be high enough to reach the level of protection that is needed.” He said plans had been suggested to permanently raise Water Street and make it a natural levee, but that hinged on funding.

Peak of 9m expected

The Fitzroy River was at 8.4 metres and rising slowly late on Wednesday, heading towards an expected peak of about 9 metres on Thursday.

At that level about 200 houses will have water over the floorboards, as well as cutting off or otherwise affecting around 3000 homes and businesses in low-lying suburbs.

There has been some water already over suburban streets, while the Bruce Highway has been diverted through town on a route which is raised above be the floodwaters.

District disaster co-ordinator Superintendent Ron Van Saane said officers had issued a handful of fines to rubberneckers going through flooded roads, but otherwise the response of the town to the unfolding crisis had been excellent.

Water on the rise in Depot Hill, Rockhampton. Picture: Tim Marsden

FLOOD MAP
This animation shows the potential flood inundation areas according to the BoM predicted flood heights. This should be used as a guide only, for more information go to the Rockhampton Council Flood Season information page.

‘Incredible body of water’

An “incredible body of water” is starting to flow into Rockhampton as local authorities repeat calls for multi-million dollar levees to guard against future flooding.

Waters continue to rise in the central Queensland city, where the Fitzroy River is expected to peak at nine metres on Thursday morning, leaving around 200 homes inundated.

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said while the flood peak had been revised down from 9.4 metres, residents still needed to be prepared.

“We have such a huge catchment up there and this body of water is incredible,” she said on Wednesday morning.

“It has to go out somewhere and it’s coming through the Fitzroy.”

Water begins to rise around businesses closer to the city centre. Picture: Tim Marsden

Earlier, Rockhampton Mayor Margaret Strelow blamed a shortage of funds for a decision to install temporary levees in the middle of streets, condemning one side to possible flooding while protecting the other.

The local council has set up the temporary levees in the suburb of Berserker, but Mayor Margaret Strelow said it did not have enough money to protect the whole suburb, meaning tough decisions needed to be made.

“I lost a lot of political skin a few years ago trying to get a levee that would protect the whole area. Not surprisingly, people are starting to talk about it again,” Cr Strelow told Channel Seven.

“We can do it for about $120 million, $130 million...and we would be sitting watching the mighty Fitzroy do its thing with almost no homes impacted.”

The Fitzroy River was at 8.25 metres early this morning and slowly climbing.

It will be regarded as in major flood when it hits 8.5 metres, expected later today.

We're LIVE with @MargaretStrelow, Mayor of Rockhampton, as Rocky residents prepare for floods. #9Today pic.twitter.com/R9K0K66Luk

— The Today Show (@TheTodayShow) April 4, 2017

Suburb prepares to go under

Rockhampton is expecting to start seeing major inundations today, with the Fitzroy River topping eight metres on its way to a predicted Thursday peak of 9 metres.

The river had been around 7.8 metres and slowly climbing on Tuesday, thick with runoff from the massive catchment system which runs into the Fitzroy, and which funnelled out the massive amounts of rain dumped on the region by Cyclone Debbie.

The river was initially predicted to peak today but hydrologists have now moved that back to Thursday. But river levels are expected to exceed the major flood level of 8.5m this morning.

Rockhampton this morning. The flood level is creeping up slowly, but those waters are moving fast! @SBSNews pic.twitter.com/kUkJMPIhOS

— Rhiannon Elston SBS (@rhiannonelston) April 4, 2017

Authorities are preparing for a number of low lying areas to start to go under, including almost the entire suburb of Depot Hill.

Temporary levees have been set up around the suburb of Beserker, but they only protect part of the area, with other parts left at the mercy of the rising river.

Around 340 homes are expected to be inundated with more than 3000 affected in total.

Most locals in affected areas have elected to stay in their homes, despite the risk of being cut off, with many owning boats or kayaks which they plan to get around in.

A boat on a trailer sits in floodwaters ready to use as the waters use. Picture: AAP.

The emergency evacuation centre has been set up in the city’s Showgrounds, but so far only a handful of people have arrived there.

The slowly rising water has cut a number of roads, with authorities closing a number of others as a precaution, as well as diverting Bruce Highway traffic through the town on a specially designed route which doesn’t flood. An extra 60 police have been brought from other parts of the state to assist with patrols.

The city flooded in 2011 and again in 2013, as well as being hit with a cyclone and related flooding in 2015, and the mood of both local authorities and residents has been quiet preparedness as the river slowly inches higher.

This is as close as we can get to the flood gauge in #Rockhampton this morning. The Fitzroy has reached 8.3m. pic.twitter.com/ToUEl1t9me

— Jesse Dorsett (@jessedorsett) April 4, 2017

AAP

Levee still a pipe dream

A 7km levee that could save as many as 1500 Rockhampton properties from flooding has been on the agenda for 25 years but never been built because of funding ­issues.

As the central Queensland town braces for a forecast 9m flood peak tomorrow, and an even longer wait for the water to subside, the “south Rockhampton flood levee” remains little more than an idea without firm financial backers.

First proposed in 1992, the levee system of earthworks, floodgates and barriers was designed to ­protect areas such as Depot Hill and Port Curtis from repeated flooding.

The idea was revisited by Rockhampton Regional Council in 2013, two years after floods damaged 5311 properties and cut the Bruce Highway for 13 days.

While a major part of the Bruce Highway has since been flood-proofed, the local nature of the levee meant that the council, and ratepayers, would have to help meet the $50 million-$60m cost of construction.

Council surveys have managed only to muddy the ­waters, with Rockhampton’s Mayor Margaret Strelow accusing other ­politicians of misrepresenting the results and avoiding funding ­commitments.

“It is hard to love a levee but it is only when you don’t have one that you realise what you are missing,” she told the Floodplain Management Association Nat­ional Conference in 2015.

Yesterday, residents and business owners in Depot Hill were being flooded again, some so ­accustomed to the event that they tie boats to their houses in preparation for evacuation.

Major employers have suspended operations, the Rockhampton airport has been closed, traffic from a low-lying section of the Bruce Highway has been ­diverted on to local streets and an evacuation centre has been established at the showgrounds.

A temporary levee was being erected to help protect homes in the northern suburb of Berserker, providing relief to some residents but angering those left outside.

The forecast 9m peak of the Fitzroy River — just under the level of the 2011 floods — was yesterday expected to inundate about 1800 properties, of which about 330 would have water over the floorboards.

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said authorities were “very confident that the necessary preparations have been done — some 1800 people have been contacted so they have had the time to prepare”.

The flooding is a consequence of heavy rain in the wake of ­Cyclone Debbie.