Holloways and Machans Beach flood emergency
The worst flooding in a century has surrounded beach communities with residents experiencing a sea of murky brown water, swamped homes, crumbling roads, no internet service and water while many were evacuated by boat and jetski. INSIDE THE FLOOD ZONE
Cairns
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The worst flooding in a century has surrounded the communities of Holloways and Machans Beach with a sea of murky brown water, while some have have chosen to endure a blackout, no internet service and water, many have been evacuated by boat or jetski.
On Sunday, water from the broken banks of the Barron River began to inundate low lying homes within the two seaside suburbs and by late in the evening the water had got so high civilian craft were rescuing people from rooftops.
The flood peaked at 14.09m, a full 4m above the major flood indicator and a level not experienced since 1913.
There was a strong sense of a community coming together as flood victims packed a makeshift evacuation centre in Machans Beach and private vessels ferried people out of the flood zone.
Homeowners who had lost everything were still running on adrenaline on Monday afternoon but the gravity of the devastation and an overwhelming sense of loss was beginning to show.
No food or water drops and the navy only being deployed on Monday afternoon had many expressing a feeling of being abandoned by authorities and let down an inadequate emergency warning system telling residents to seek shelter after the rising flood water had already swamped the suburb.
A flood emergency warning at 7.56pm on Sunday night alerted residents of widespread flooding at Yorkeys Knob, Holloways Beach and Machans Beach, but by then streets were under a metre of water, Wayne Featonby, from Banksia Close in Holloways Beach said.
“But then there was no warning to get out of flood-prone areas or anything, like it’s already flooded,” he said.
Bamboo St residents Joshua Howard and Lauren Collins loaded up their cat Freya and young son Alex and got out of Holloways Beach on Monday morning after a wet and sleepless night.
Mr Howard was in town when trapped by flood waters and was forced to get a boat ride back to his partner who was alone with the baby.
“I had to walk all the way down to Bamboo St in waist deep water and at one point there I just lifted my legs up and started floating down with the water,” he said.
“There was one bed that was wet on the edges so I was on that and (Joshua) was on the lounge on top of a tarp,” Ms Collins said.
Devastating scenes in Cairns as waters of a one in a 100 year flood event recede. #cairnsflooding#cairnsflood@TheCairnsPostpic.twitter.com/zUcrrpRCPn
— Peter Carruthers (@petercarruther1) December 18, 2023
On Oleander St Holloways Beach, Tara Read and Caine OcConnell planned to have their new kitchen installed in time for Christmas when the flood hit.
Walking through mud, past unboxed kitchen appliances, Ms Read could hardly contain the tears in her eyes.
“We’re not very happy about it, it’s devastating, we’re homeless,” she said.
“I’m done with crying, I was scared for our lives when we got rescued.”
On Casuarina St in Holloways Beach homemade signs alert people to the danger of fallen power lines and a gaping chasm where the road once was.
A huge channel carved out by surging flood water taking the most direct route from Thomatis Ck to the sea has now isolated a group of homes from the already cut off Holloways Beach.
In Machans Beach a makeshift emergency shelter was set up by the community on Tucker St.
Deb Donahoe and Clint Blundell took shelter there on Sunday night.
“We’ve been given mattresses and we’ve got about 15 dogs in there,” Ms Donahoe said.
“We have two really amazing nurses here and one of them lost everything, the poor girl.”
She said the ATM is out of cash and the Machans Beach Petrol Station can only do cash transactions due to the power being out.
“If you haven’t got cash on you, you can’t get anything and someone said the SES can’t help because they don’t have cash to buy supplies,” she said.
Cairns SES controller Reece Booij said his team set up a staging point at 25 Oak St, Holloways Beach, and were dropping people on the roof of the house for later evacuation.
“Last night was just hectic, people were swimming in houses (before we got) them out,” he said.
“So we were going into fast flowing water and picking people up and putting them on the roof and then we put them into a larger rescue boat to take them to the Barron River bridge.”
Rick and Jarrod from Far North Hooked on Fishing were among the civilian contingent that transported dozens of people to safety until about midnight on Sunday and well into Monday.
“There were so many people asking for help, we saw it on Facebook and when we got there last night there were 30 people on one roof and about 40 people on another and we just started ferrying people,” Jarrod said.
“The SES were getting smashed and they could only take three or four people at a time, but we can take 10 at a time.
“We had a long boat, and thought, let’s put it in and go and help.”
On Monday afternoon navy teams had made it across to flood impacted residents and army teams were launching boats at the Barron River bridge.
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