Northern Queensland has been lashed by rainfall so severe it has left a town underwater, a crocodile on a front doorstep and pub-goers needing boats to get a drink – with the deadly floods expected to get worse, even as the rain eases.
Ingham residents were forced to flee their homes, while others are seeing rising rivers reach a peak on Tuesday after up to 1.2metres of rain fell in a days-long deluge.
Locals said the flooding is amongst the worst they have ever seen, with dozens having to be rescued on Sunday night as their homes were inundated, their electricity was gone and the town cut off.
By Monday afternoon, 119 people had registered at the evacuation centre at Ingham State High School with nearly 300 people in centres across Townsville and Ingham.
One woman got the shock of her life when a crocodile appeared at the stairs leading up to her house on the Haughton River near Giru.
The freshwater croc struggled to swim against the fast moving floodwater and was being washed ever closer to her home.
‘Don’t you come up under my house and up my stairs,’ the woman can be heard saying on a video, posted by Anita on Higgins Storm Chasing.
‘You nearly took out my pot plants then.’
In Euramo, the local pub ended up on an island, surrounded by water due to the massive rainfall.
It didn’t put thirsty residents off, though, but instead of driving or walking to the Euramo Hotel, they had to travel by boat instead – using a tinny to get a tinny.
Rainfall is expected to ease over the coming days but any further drenching of the already-soaked regions will aggravate the flood disaster.
The intensity of rain eased on Monday afternoon with six-hour totals peaking at 50 to 100mm rather the 600mm that fell over the weekend.
There were still some isolated high rainfall totals between Innisfail and Ingham where 167mm was recorded at Clyde Road at Babinda and 149mm at Paluma.
But even as the rain eases, river levels are still rising.
‘Some catchments are holding steady or even starting to fall, but others are still continuing to rise in response to past rainfall,’ the Bureau of Meteorology’s Miriam Bradbury said.
There was some relief for Townsville residents overnight, with the Ross River failing to reach the major flood level and peaking at 1.66metres before it began subsiding.
But those evacuated in Townsville’s ‘Black Zone’ spanning Cluden, Hermit Park, Idalia, Oonoonba, Railway Estate and Rosslea have still been urged not to return home.
‘Do not return home until you are advised to do so,’ Councillor Andrew Robinson said.
But Ingham’s swollen Herbert River is still on the rise with locals fearing it would reach beyond the record level of the 1967 mark at 15.2metres.
The Herbert River at Abergowrie Bridge is at 13.35metres and rising, while at the Ingham Substation – where the 1967 record was held – it has begun falling to 14.34metres.
The Bureau warned that Tuesday could bring heavy rainfall between Cairns and Townsville with a severe weather warning in place between Cardwell and Yabulu.
‘Rainfall totals are expected to be lower than they were during the past weekend, but the rain is likely to be enough to prolong the existing flooding and potentially cause new areas of flooding,’ Ms Bradbury said.
She said totals could be anywhere from 10 to 100mm.
The Bureau is expecting rain to become patchier on Tuesday afternoon with thunderstorms and showers lingering for the rest of the week.
‘Any further rain will continue to feed into the already swollen rivers, prolonging flood impacts,’ Ms Bradbury said
‘A more significant clearance in the wet weather is not forecast to arrive until late in the week, or even early next week.’
Hundreds of people have been evacuated and many rescued across the region, with more than one metre of rain falling near Townsville.
The State Emergency Service (SES) responded to 46 calls since 3pm on Monday, with the majority for the agency to put tarps on leaking ceilings.
Other calls were for sandbagging to prevent floodwaters, and supplying food or medication.
Ergon Energy restored power to Palm Island, Balgal Beach, Bluewater, Magnetic Island and Giru on Monday afternoon
It has restored power to half of Cardwell and will continue repairs on Tuesday.
It is not yet known when Ingham will be reconnected given the significant flood damage.
Queensland Premier David Crisafulli has been briefed about potential health dangers from the floodwaters.
‘We’ve just received a briefing from the health minister as part of this … and that is something we’re going to be speaking quite a bit about in the next 24 hours,’ he said.
Mr Crisafulli said the region had seen a break in the rain, but that Queensland was not ‘out of the woods’ as flooding risks remained.
‘The Bureau (of Meteorology) says that there is still the prospect of rain, and so we have to prepare for that,’ he said.
‘The best case scenario could be a minimal amount of homes inundated, that would be an amazing achievement, considering we are staring down the barrel of seeing 1,700, but until we see what happens overnight, we’re not out of the woods.’