‘Flood Watch’ for parts of the North Tropical Coast and Central Coast

People in parts of north Queensland have been flooded in for days and more huge rainfall totals are expected over the weekend.

Transcript

00:00We're on the banks of the Don River, which does have a flood watch at the moment.

00:06Now, communities in Bowen this morning have been, and all into the afternoon, have been

00:11preparing, doing the usual things, sandbagging, getting their emergency kits ready, that kind

00:16of thing.

00:17But they've also been taking things in their stride in a typical North Queensland way.

00:21We spoke to many people who were just kind of waiting out the rain at the pub.

00:25We also have spoken to some people who were on watch for brown snakes coming up from the

00:29river.

00:30But when we did speak to the Mayor this morning, he wanted to make everyone aware that, you

00:35know, this really is going to be a protected weather event.

00:38There's going to be falls of up to 500 millimetres coming to this area, and people really need

00:43to be prepared.

00:44Here's a little bit of what he had to say earlier.

00:47We're continuing to monitor.

00:48We're getting updates through from, you know, the District Disaster Unit and also State

00:53Disaster Unit regularly.

00:56So yeah, we're keeping our finger on the pulse with that.

00:59They are low-pressure systems at the moment.

01:01There is still a small chance that they could develop.

01:04So really just making sure that we're prepared, we're communicating with the public, and just

01:08being vigilant through this time.

01:10Yeah, so what's the chances could develop into a cyclone?

01:15Well that was the fear, Joe.

01:16The fear was that this low-pressure system off the coast of North Queensland would make

01:20landfall as a cyclone, though it's looking less likely that that's going to occur.

01:25But that doesn't mean that things might be any less severe.

01:28There is a severe weather warning from where I am here in Bowen, right up to Tully.

01:33There's also been widespread falls, and as you can see, obviously, the rain is really

01:37coming down here.

01:38That's sort of started to pick up over the last half an hour or so.

01:41So really, as I said before, the message is for the communities who are right up here

01:46from Bowen, right up to Tully.

01:47That includes areas like Townsville, still some parts of Innisfail.

01:51Just be vigilant, be aware, and be prepared for this weather that is expected to come

01:56across the next few days and into the weekend.