Kirrily mop-up begins but heavy rain risk remains

Thousands of Townsville residents remain without power as northern Queensland begins to clean up following Tropical Cyclone Kirrily.

Strong winds hit regions on Thursday evening along with rainfall totals between 100 and 150 millimetres, but minimal property damage was recorded.

Around 66,000 customers experienced a power outage at the peak of the cyclone’s crossing and 42,000 households remained without power on Saturday afternoon.

Ergon Energy deployed 600 restoration crews and said the focus would be on Townsville which had the majority of outages.

Queensland Premier Steven Miles said power outages were also affecting phone networks and water supply for around 10,000 households.

He urged people affected to continue conserving water, and know that crews were prioritising reconnection.

“Thankfully, we know of no loss of life and very minimal property damage at this stage ... which is really great news when you compare it to what we could have expected given earlier predictions of the cyclone,” he told reporters on Saturday.

Emergency Management Minister Murray Watt said affected residents would soon have access to government hardship payments worth $180 per person, up to $900 for a family of five.

Local, state and federal governments would also be considering whether further support was needed in future.

“The first thing is simply to get a bit of money into the pockets of people who’ve suffered some losses,” Senator Watt said.

The Bureau of Meteorology warned remnants from the weather system would move slowly inland, bringing extreme moisture and heavy-to-intense rainfall.

Parts of northern Queensland could face up to 100 millimetres of rainfall as the system lingers in the outback north-west of Longreach over the weekend, the bureau’s senior meteorologist Miriam Bradbury said.

“That’s quite a short period to see quite a lot of rain come through so it may very quickly lead to flash-flooding that could cut off roads and access routes, turning them muddy and impassible,” she said.

A Queensland community is once again in recovery mode after ex-tropical cyclone Kirrily took down power lines and uprooted trees in the state’s north-east.Credit: Nine News

Parts of central and southern Queensland can potentially face severe thunderstorms on Saturday with flood warnings out for central-west Queensland, parts of the Carpentaria and Cape York Peninsula.

There are severe thunderstorm warnings along the NSW mid-north coast, Northern Rivers, North West Slopes and Northern Tablelands bringing heavy rainfall and damaging winds.

Parts of the state’s north-east are also expecting heavy to intense rainfall with dangerous flash flooding possible across northern ranges, slopes, plains, and far north-east coast.

The system’s path becomes less clear early next week and could potentially move west towards the Northern Territory, weaken and dissipate over inland Queensland or drift south into central Queensland.

Emergency crews were called to help a group of people trapped in rising waters near Charters Towers on Friday night.

Three off-road vehicles went recreational driving to view the effects of the storm but became stranded due to rising waters.

The cars held 14 people, including four children, and were stranded for a short time.

Two members of the public attempted an unauthorised rescue with a small vessel but ended up capsizing. The occupants were able to get to land safely.

A local mustering helicopter airlifted the group to safety.

Townsville police district disaster co-ordinator Chris Lawson said it was disappointing people were actively trying to enter floodwaters for recreation.

“We’re seeing significant amounts of rainfall occur across our region at the moment and we don’t want people to be putting themselves at risk, because that then puts the people who have to save them at risk,” he said.

“I encourage people to stay away from the floodwaters and ensure their own safety.”

Hundreds of State Emergency Service volunteers are supporting locals while low-security prisoners from the Townsville Correctional Complex have also joined clean-up efforts.

-AAP

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