Crocodiles on Australia’s streets, military deployed following ‘once-in-a-century’ flood
- by Mandy Simon
- in World
- — Feb 5, 2019
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Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said a recovery centre was opened in Townsville.
Townsville residents fill sandbags in preparation for more flooding.
Overnight, Bluewater Creek in the city's north, copped 340mm of rain, with nearly 100 calls for help to emergency service crews.
"The possibility of wind gusts also insists with the onshore flow. and there is some chance of tornadoes forming in that onshore flow as the convergence lines feed into the monsoonal low cross the coast, there's enough favourable wind sheer to make that possible".
Ergon Energy spokesman Emma Oliveri said more than 16,000 people were without power, and the company is unable to say when the lights will come back on.
"This continued heavy rain and flooding has damaged homes, isolated communities and displaced people from their homes", said Shannon Fentiman, acting communities minister in Queensland.
Other residents on higher ground are nervously waiting inside their homes to see just how far flood waters will rise after unprecedented releases from the city's swollen dam.
Desperate residents had to contend not only with flash flooding, landslides and power blackouts, but also several saltwater crocodile sightings in residential roads and cul-de-sacs.
"We've just seen the wettest week on record in Townsville with more than 1000mm of rain falling - and it's not over yet".
Meanwhile, residents in the small community of Balgal Beach, about 50 kilometres north east of Townsville, spent the morning cleaning up after 200mm of rain overnight.
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Townsville floods: Crocodiles in the streets as floodgates open in Queensland
"We expect this active monsoon to remain active for the coming days, potentially easing over the weekend, so there is an end in sight".
Residents had to be rescued from their rooftops last night as the dam's waters swept through.
"This is the highest rainfall event in a 10-day period", Australian Bureau of Meteorology (BoM) extreme weather forecaster Grace Legge told ABC News.
"It's all material stuff, we can replace things, but to get in and open the door and see everything gone - it was just devastating", he told AAP.
The pair was seen near the site of a bottle shop looting incident in flooded Aitkenvale on Monday, but their families say they have not heard from them.
The prime minister encouraged any Queenslander affected by floods over the past week to contact Centrelink for immediate food assistance.
I live 300m from the upper fresh water reaches of Ross River near Gleeson's Weir and police arrived ordering onlookers to go home.
NRL player Kalifa Faifai Loa helps Danielle Josey and Lyndon Josey remove valuable belongings from their home in Idalia, Townsville.
The heavy rains and opening of the dam smashed record water levels set by the infamous 1998 "Night of Noah" flood when 550 millimetres (1.8 feet) of rain fell in 24 hours-about half of Townsville's annual rainfall.
Exceptional monsoon rains have caused severe flooding in parts of Australia's north-eastern state of Queensland.
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