Flash flooding: 18 people rescued from Mossman River
Eighteen people have been rescued after severe weather and flash flooding lashed the region, Telstra and Ergon have begun a “mammoth” restoration effort, and the extent of damage north of the Daintree is slowly being revealed.
Cairns
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Photos have begun filtering through of the damage at Cow Bay, north of the Daintree River.
Communications are down throughout Wujal Wujal, and much of Cape Tribulation and the Daintree, which makes it difficult to get a clear picture of the impact Tropical Cyclone Jasper has had on the region.
But these photographs tell part of the story.
A Cairns woman travelled to Cow Bay, 28km south of Cape Tribulation, to support her elderly mother, who has lived there for 30 years.
“The wind sound was like a freight train gusting and swirling through the trees,” she said.
“You could hear waves of the freight train coming with massive swirling of the trees.
“Hearing trees fall and crack frequently in the near distant made us shudder at times.
“We just stayed inside mum’s pole home dry and safe watching TV until reception was lost.”
The woman said her and her mother didn’t feel the need to take shelter and went to bed like normal.
“The house is very solid, thankfully, so no shaking felt, no black outs with the solar power system either, so fortunate there,” she said.
However, phone reception, WiFi and satellite TV are all out.
Shelter from the storm
There are plenty of wallabies living happily in green space such as Wallaby Park and in people’s large yards, but they scurried for cover during Wednesday night.
Wallabies could be seen taking shelter under the eaves of many houses, while the many curlews in the suburb huddled under trees in leaf debris.
Plenty of young families and a wide range of residents visited the picnic shelter at Pelican Park at Kewarra Beach, with several surfers unable to resist the rolling waves.
Phone service disrupted in strike zone
The loss of power to Telstra infrastructure may be at fault for a lack of mobile service around the Far North following the aftermath of ex-Tropical Cyclone Jasper, as both telco and Ergon crews prepare for a “mammoth” restoration effort.
A Telstra spokesman confirmed the service outage but said there were no reports of damaged infrastructure.
“We’ve been fortunate that we’re not aware of any damage to our infrastructure but we are having issues with the availability of mains power,” the spokesman confirmed.
“A lot of our sites that are down are mobile sites or exchanges due to a lack of mains power. When that gets restored, we would hope that the services would come back soon.”
The spokesman confirmed Telstra would deploy generators to restore power to sites when it was safe to do so.
“Our base stations have some level of battery backup and that can be a small number of hours to a couple of days. It varies on the particular site but the juices will run out eventually,” he said.
Telstra stores in Cairns and Atherton have reopened, however they will not be available for late night trading.
“If anybody’s got any problems, they can pop in there, but in terms of connectivity, we’ll certainly be doing our best efforts to get stuff up and running as soon as we can.”
Far North residents have also been urged to keep safety in mind as Ergon crews begin the mammoth restoration effort to restore power to important infrastructure such as hospitals and clinics as well as businesses and residencies.
More than 40,000 homes have been left without power since Wednesday morning.
Ergon Energy senior communications adviser Emma Oliveri urged residents to take care around fallen powerlines.
“The fallen powerlines message is critical because we’ve got a lot of trees down. We’ve got flooding in some areas so fallen powerlines can be hidden in trees and storm debris and they can be submerged in floodwaters so we really want people to stay well away, at least 10m,” Ms Oliveri said.
“If you’re doing clean up, be aware. Fallen powerlines are a life threatening hazard and they need to be reported to us. Keep children and pets well away. People think they’re harmless because they’re on the ground, but they should always be treated as though they’re live.”
In a statement, Ergon confirmed there was likely to be widespread network damage across several shires, including Cairns, Douglas, Cassowary Coast, Mareeba, Tablelands and Yarrabah, however crews were on the ground to begin restoration services.
“Ergon Energy crews in Cairns, Cassowary Coast, Tablelands and Mareeba have hit the ground running this morning.
“The top priority for restoration will be critical services, like water and sewerage infrastructure, communications, hospitals, aged care homes and major shopping centres which supply essentials to the community.
“Crews will also be looking to safely restore power to the most number of customers as possible. There may be some quick wins, depending on the damage assessment.
“Heavy rainfall and flooding may impede access to some sites.
“This is a widespread and complex restoration effort, but rest assured local crews will be doing their utmost and there are reinforcements from across the state ready to back them up.”
To report fallen powerlines, call Ergon Energy on 131 670 or Triple 0.
Flash flooding evacuation, Mossman
Severe weather and flash flooding has led to an early morning rescue and evacuation of one suburban street in Mossman River.
Queensland Fire and Emergency swift water rescue crews and Queensland Police have evacuated 18 people from Mossman Street in Mossman River this morning after they were called to attend a flooded house on the street about 1am.
Emergency services were initially engaged to rescue eight people who were forced to find safe ground on the top level of their house as heavy rainfall and strong winds from Ex-Tropical Cyclone Jasper thrashed the region.
QFES and QPS officers then door knocked the surrounding properties and evacuated a further ten people from the street.
None of the evacuees were taken to hospital or required serious medical attention.
All eighteen residents were transported to the nearest evacuation centre at Mossman library.
In the 24 hour period to 5am on Thursday, The Bureau of Meteorology recorded 390mm of rain at their Daintree site with heavy rain predicted to continue throughout the day, easing up as the storm system moves west towards the Gulf of Carpentaria.
Major flooding predicted for Daintree village
The Daintree River is swollen with a height of 7.55m at Daintree Village and Mossman River is at 8m as of 5am Thursday.
In Port Douglas, Macrossan St and Mahogany St are flooded.
Major flooding is predicted for Daintree village Thursday morning with the river level expected to rise to 9m.
Moderate flooding is occurring at Daintree Village and major flooding is likely during Thursday morning. Higher levels are possible with further heavy rainfall.
Barratt Creek, leading in to Daintree village, is underwater, and Foxton Bridge on the north of Mossman is underwater.
At Mossman, river levels are similar to the January 2019 flood event.
Cyclone Jasper BOM update and emergency advice for Cairns, Port Douglas
Jasper is no longer moving at a tropical cyclone intensity, according to the Bureau of Meteorology; however heavy rain, damaging winds and thunderstorms are still likely throughout the day.
At 12.35am this morning, Ex-Tropical Cyclone Jasper was marked as a tropical low system within 165km northwest of Cairns moving 13 km per hour to the west by the BOM.
A major flood warning for the Daintree village remains in place as the Daintree and Mossman River catchments record 390mm of rain in the 24 hour period to 5am Thursday morning.
Minor and moderate flood warnings have been issued across the Far North with a severe weather warning for North Tropical Coast, Tablelands and parts of the Cape York Peninsula west of the Tablelands.
Heavy rainfall between Cooktown and Ingham, locally intense rainfall between Cooktown and Cairns leading to flash flooding is still expected today alongside damaging winds of around 90km per hour extending inland to Palmerville and Chillagoe.
The weather is expected to ease by Thursday evening depending on the movements of Ex-Cyclone Jasper.
Cape York residents between Musgrave, Palmerville, Abingdowns, Yagoonya and Kowanyama will likely experience similar rainfall and wind gusts later this afternoon as the weather system moves west.
Senior Meteorologist Laura Boekel said wind speeds had reached up to 115km/hr.
“We have seen widespread rainfall from this system so a lot of catchments and locations have seen over 200mm.”
She said rainfall totals of between 115 and 200 mmm were still possible today while 24-hour rainfall totals could reach 300mm today.
“If we see these fall in a short period of time, intense rainfall within a short period of time, that’s when we can see that dangerous and life-threatening flooding,” she said.
Queensland Police State Disaster Coordinator Shane Chelepy said there had been no reports of serious injury but warned that people should still listen to warnings from emergency services.
Energy Minister Mick de Brenni said one in four premises were without power because of debris bringing down powerlines.
He said restoration would begin soon, with “critical community assets” the first to be reconnected. The timing would “depend on where your home or business is”.
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Firefighters have rescued 18 people from a Far North Queensland town early this morning as the full force of a category 2 cyclone was realised.
Crews were called to Mossman St at Mossman, near Port Douglas, about 12.40am where 18 people needed to be evacuated due to dangerous flash flooding.
The group, from separate addresses, were taken to an evacuation centre at the local library.
Jasper was downgraded to a tropical low late on Thursday but it was a wild night with as much as half a metre of water dumped in some places and heavy rain and potentially damaging winds still an issue. One in four properties in the affected region are without property.
After an emergency meeting this morning, Treasurer Cameron Dick said Jasper’s “tail is lingering over the Coral Sea”.
“This event is not over,” he said.
“We have seen 24 hour rainfall totals of about half a metre across Far North Queensland – that is a very large volume of water.”
Mr Dick said 40,000 homes and businesses in Far North Queensland were without power and that the Captain Cook Highway was cut between Cairns and Port Douglas.
A QFES swift water rescue team remains in Mossman after an overnight rescue. Picture: Liam Kidston
A QFES swift water rescue team remains in Mossman after an overnight rescue. Picture: Liam Kidston
Senior Meteorologist Laura Boekel said wind speeds had reached up to 115km/hr.
“We have seen widespread rainfall from this system so a lot of catchments and locations have seen over 200mm”.
She said rainfall totals of between 115 and 200 mmm were still possible today while 24-hour rainfall totals could reach 300mm today.
“If we see these fall in a short period of time, intense rainfall within a short period of time, that’s when we can see that dangerous and life-threatening flooding,” she said.
Queensland Police State Disaster Coordinator Shane Chelepy said there had been no reports of serious injury but warned that people should still listen to warnings from emergency services.
Energy Minister Mick de Brenni said one in four premises were without power because of debris bringing down powerlines.
He said restoration would begin soon, with “critical community assets” the first to be reconnected. The timing would “depend on where your home or business is”.
As much as half-a-metre of water has fallen in parts of the far North overnight. Picture: Liam Kidston
As much as half-a-metre of water has fallen in parts of the far North overnight. Picture: Liam Kidston
“This will be a significant task for the Ergon team,” he said. “Stay away from fallen powerlines.”
Cairns Airport has resumed operations, with multiple flights scheduled to depart and arrive throughout the day.
Thousands without power across Far North
Tens of thousands have been left without power, some for almost 24 hours, overnight with crews still unable to assess the damage.
About 40,000 customers between Bloomfield in the north and Mission Beach are without power due to cyclonic weather or public safety concerns.
A spokesperson for Ergon Energy said crews would begin damage assessments as soon as it was safe to do so.
“There is likely to be widespread network damage across several shires, including Cairns, Douglas, Cassowary Coast, Mareeba, Tablelands and Yarrabah,” the spokesperson said.
“We won’t have accurate restoration timeframes until then, so we appreciate everyone’s patience.
The spokesperson added severe weather could impact work crews access to damaged sites and “realistic community expectations” needed to be set.
Ergon Energy reminded people to stay away from fallen powerlines and report them to emergency services or Ergon on 13 16 70.
31K homes without power, fallen debris in Far North
Authorities will have to work around the clock to restore power to more than 31,000 homes and clear fallen debris in the wake of Tropical Cyclone Jasper.
The slow-moving category two storm is due to cross the coast to the south of Wujal Wujal about 8pm on Wednesday, bringing with it widespread heavy rainfall and wind gusts of up to 140km/h.
Surging tides whipped up by the storm inundated beaches on Wednesday, but did not reach people’s homes, as was originally feared.
Ergon Energy crews were due to kick into action as soon as the danger of the storm had passed, making powerlines safe and assessing damage to the Far North’s power network.
Crews will begin repairs from first light on Thursday, if it is safe to do so.
People are reminded to stay well away from any fallen powerlines.
With the threat of storm surge past, the Cairns Local Disaster Management Group is now keeping a watchful eye on river and creek heights and rainfall totals, with another 70-150mm forecast to fall on Thursday, and more on Friday.
Meanwhile, in the Northern Beaches a boat sitting on the bottom of a marina has sunk due to Cyclone Jasper.
Ryan and Karen Moody were down at Bluewater Marina in Trinity Park to check on their own fishing vessel when they saw the 35-odd footer sitting on the seafloor with the top of its bow and canopy poking above the water.
Ms Moody said it was sitting on the bottom and looks to have gone down stern first.
“We though it could have possibly been an issue with a bilge pump but it’s certainly odd because we haven’t had that much wind or that much rain,” she said.
“There are much smaller tenders in the marina without a bilge pump with not water in them from the rain,” Mr Moody, who runs Ryan Moody Fishing, said.
“It may have been something where some existing damage or a problem with a sea port with a toilet or something has broken and let the water in.”
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Originally published as Flash flooding: 18 people rescued from Mossman River
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