Gold Coast, Scenic Rim and Brisbane on alert as more rain is forecast to fall in Queensland, with flash flooding possible
Denis Fogarty’s Gold Coast home had its roof cave-in during the Christmas storms. (ABC News: Mark Rigby)
Queensland is expected to cop another battering as wild weather continues on Tuesday.
Heavy, locally intense rainfall has been forecast for part of the south-east, including Wide Bay and Burnett.
Consistent rain could trigger flash flooding, so authorities are asking residents to follow the latest safety advice.
The Bureau of Meteorology said heavy rainfall increased the potential for landslides and debris across roads.
SES has received 700 requests for help in the last 24 hours on the Gold Coast and Scenic Rim, with more than 17 rescues since Monday morning.
Emergency Management Minister Nikki Boyd said “catchments are already quite saturated” so any rain is likely to lead to river rises.
She said 100-180mm of rain was expected to fall “from Gympie down to the border” in the following 24 hours.
The minister said 500 emergency personnel and volunteers are on the ground, helping evacuate those at-risk to higher ground or one of the evacuation centres that have been set up in Nerang, Coomera and Tamborine Mountain.
State Disaster Coordinator Acting Deputy Commissioner Shane Chelepy said more than 681,000 emergency messages went sent to mobile phones across the community yesterday.
He said Energex crews were able to reconnect about a thousand Gold Coast homes to power on Monday, but “dangerous weather” meant they were stood down until winds eased.
“Energex is certainly working as fast as possible to be able to get homes reconnected — they’re doing that not only through rebuilding the network … [but] they’re working around generator restoration,” Ms Boyd said.
She said Mount Tamborine has created a “micro-grid”, by installing generators either side of the network, so businesses can continue trading.
Acting Deputy Commissioner Chelepy said SES crews from New South Wales and Victoria have been called in to help, and another request for additional resources has been filed to the federal government “because we now know the clean-up is going to be far greater” than that of Christmas and Boxing Day.
He quelled calls for bringing in the Australian Defence Force (ADF), noting the current support on the ground is specially suited to the situation.
“When we request to the federal government, we [ask for] resources that we need, with specific skill sets … the federal government [then picks] the appropriate agency, private contractor, defence — whoever they think provides the best skill set to support us,” he explained.
Some of the specific skills needed include working at heights and chainsaw operation.
A message to the mayor
The roof of Denis Fogarty’s Oxenford home fell in during recent severe storms — he’s got it watertight again now but the constant rain, and quickly-rising Coomera River near his home, has him worried all over again.
“After Christmas Eve, the anxiety levels were fairly high — and that’s probably an understatement — until the emergency services started to come through,” he told the ABC.
“We thought we got a little bit of reprieve, especially when the power came back on at midnight [the night before last], we thought things were going to be a little bit brighter but [the rain] certainly dampened the spirit.
“But we’re dry … [which] is pretty good because there’s quite a few hundred [who] are far worse off — my heart goes out to them.”
His neighbourhood is worried about debris getting caught at the causeway downstream, noting there will be cause for concern if large logs back-up and flood back through the creek to cut off local roads.
Without “going political”, Mr Fogarty wants to send a message to the Gold Coast mayor: “Get off the blame game bandwagon”.
He suggested Tom Tate “put feet on the ground and just do some door-knocking” because many of his suburban neighbours haven’t been put in touch with support yet.
“It’s a learning curve, I know, we’ve just had a taste of what goes on up north and maybe you should have a chat with them and see how well they do it,” Mr Fogarty said in the wake of the mayor’s comments criticising the weather bureau.