Water from Townsville’s bulging dam could flood up to 100 homes under a risky plan to save the city from widespread flooding.
Major releases have been ordered from the Ross River Dam but Townsville mayor Jenny Hill says there are no guarantees the plan will work.
Between 90 and 100 homes downstream from the dam are being evacuated, as the city deals with a one-in-100 year event.
Water releases will exceed what’s usually allowed under Townsville’s emergency action plan but Ms Hill said authorities had no choice with more days of torrential rain ahead.
“What we’re trying to do is to get ahead of the system, so we reduce the risk of any further flooding in the city — but that’s not guaranteed,” she told reporters on Friday.
The dam is currently at 178 per cent of capacity and the Ross River is dumping a record amount of rain into the sea.
“We haven’t taken this decision lightly,” she said, adding army and SES workers were door-knocking at-risk homes to help people sandbag and get them to move.
The homes to be evacuated are in Cluden, Rosslea, Hermit Park, Oonoonba, Idalia and Railway Estate.
Queensland Fire and Emergency Services Commissioner Katarina Carroll said more resources have been brought in to cope with the disaster.
She said there had been 28 rescues in recent days, including people caught in flash flooding and trapped on roofs.
“We have had 50 houses already impacted in some way through inundation or structurally but I expect that to rise as well,” she told reporters.
Dr Richard Wardle from the Bureau of Meteorology said the Townsville area had been swamped with more than a year’s worth of rain.
“The annual rainfall for Townsville is 1.1 metres. We’re seeing more than that at the moment. We’re going to see places get two or three times their summer average rainfall amounts.” Some areas could get up to 400mm a day, for the next few days, due to a very active and slow moving monsoon trough.
Townsville residents say shopping centres are underwater and crocodiles have been seen on football fields and highways.
Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said authorities were doing the only thing they could in letting so much water out of the dam.
Schools and childcare centres in Townsville remain closed along with the city’s courts.
Bluewater resident Roger Goodwin said the rain had been “horrendous” since about 2am, and a wall of water hit his property two hours later.
“We had a metre-and-a-half of water come through the house again — or under my house,” he told ABC.
Mr Goodwin thinks he saw a dead cow float by at one stage, and says Bluewater has had about 900mm of rain in the past three days.
“The noise of the flood that goes under the house, it is unbelievable,” he said.
Mr Goodwin’s neighbours are staying with him as their house has been swamped. He expects dozens of homes will emerge with flood damage.
At the moment he’s staying put, but only because his house is three metres off the ground.
The atrocious weather is hindering efforts to find a man feared missing at Giru, south of Townsville.
The 32-year-old was last seen on foot near Black Gully about 5pm on Thursday and authorities fear he entered the floodwaters trying to get home.
A search for him resumed at first light this morning.
The once-in-20-year weather event caused residents in Townsville to be evacuated after a landslip damaged an apartment complex’s foundation and retaining walls yesterday.
The Bruce Highway remains cut-off south of Townsville and Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk has ordered schools and childcare centres in the flood zone not to open today.
The disaster has forced the cancellation of all school and urban bus services in the city, and the Townsville courts will not operate today.
There is also the potential for flash flooding in parts of northwestern Queensland today and tomorrow.
Communities near the Northern Territory border, including Mount Isa, Cloncurry and Julia Creek, are at risk.
Residents along Cape York Peninsula’s western coastline and in the Torres Strait have also been warned to expect abnormally high tides and the possibility of gale-force monsoonal winds into the weekend.
Townsville mayor Jenny Hill said yesterday the flood emergency is far from over with three to four more days of very heavy rain expected.
Townsville’s Ross River Dam is at 140 per cent of capacity, forcing operator SunWater to partially open its spill gates.
Ms Hill said the dam, which was built to mitigate flooding in the city’s south, was doing its job.
She said SunWater had modelled what would happen if the dam’s gates had to be opened fully.
“SunWater have an emergency action plan. We’ve got to trust them,” the mayor said.
“I lived through what was called the Night of Noah in 1988,” she said, when the remnants of a cyclone caused vast flooding in Townsville.
“It’s not quite as bad as that but we’re waiting (to see what the weather does).”
Bagikan Berita Ini
0 Response to "QLD floods: Townsville declared disaster zone, apartments at risk of slipping - NEWS.com.au"
Post a Comment