Townsville residents prepare to evacuate the flood zone impacting far north Queensland

ABC NEWS (Australia)

From the flood zone in far north Queensland. Townsville resident Amy Stevens says she's packed her bags and is ready to evacuate.

Transcript

00:00It's been pretty crazy the last couple of days.

00:04It's really windy at the moment.

00:07Definitely last night it picked up a lot more than we thought.

00:10Yesterday it was kind of on and off drizzles.

00:12As you can see, we've got the beautiful water embankment behind me here, but overnight it's

00:19definitely come down pretty hard.

00:21Definitely cyclone winds.

00:23Yeah, lots of fun at the moment.

00:26Yeah.

00:27And you're looking at that embankment, you're pretty close to it there, aren't you?

00:32Has it flooded at all?

00:35In the areas over there, there's like an underway to a bridge that crosses the highway.

00:40Fortunately, that's not flooded yet.

00:42And where it's at is there's quite a steep incline.

00:45So I don't think we're at any risk at the moment, but hoping that it doesn't get any

00:50worse.

00:51Townsville is, of course, in a prepare to leave warning state at the moment.

00:56What does that mean for you?

00:58What does it mean to prepare to leave?

01:00My beautiful grandparents who are watching right now, they actually have their bags packed.

01:04They're ready to go.

01:06My partner, whose video probably everyone has seen in Townsville, his four-year-old,

01:12she's ready to go.

01:13We've got two dogs.

01:14Just the essentials, the canned goods, the water, make sure that you've got all your

01:19important documents.

01:21And especially right now in the community, if you are in the position to help somebody,

01:25now is not the time to be a stranger.

01:27Help your friends, help your neighbours, help the community out.

01:31Where are you and your partner going?

01:34Are you going to an evacuation centre?

01:36Are you going to family?

01:38If that is the case, then yeah, we'll probably head there.

01:43All of our family kind of lives in the same area.

01:46So if we're all, if one's flooded, we're all flooded.

01:51Listen, you have been in this state of prepare to leave for quite some time now.

01:56Do you think the warnings that you've received have been adequate?

02:01Yeah, I'd say so.

02:04Definitely, like we were sitting at the dinner table the other night and everyone's phones

02:08was pinging.

02:09And I think I got about four in maybe an hour, I'd say.

02:13And they were all just different updates about the different suburbs around us and especially

02:17our area as well.

02:19Definitely telling us prepare to leave, you know, have your stuff ready to go and make

02:24sure you've got all your important documents.

02:26Amy, is this the first time that you're experiencing this or is this a normal annual event for

02:33you and your family?

02:35We've lived in town for our whole lives.

02:37So we were here for the 2019 floods as well.

02:41I definitely think that this, especially living so close to the lovely flood down there, is

02:48a little bit more amped up, but definitely nothing at this moment that we are directly

02:53alarmed about.

02:54Definitely those in other suburbs that are impacted more heavily.

02:58Yeah.

03:00I've been told that people in Townsville and in, you know, in Queensland are pretty hardy.

03:07They'll just take it in their stride.

03:10It's a question I think the rest of the country may start to ask.

03:13Well, if this happens every year, would you consider moving?

03:19I don't think so.

03:20I think a part of Townsville culture is that we're built to last.

03:25I think we are pretty strong and pretty headstrong.

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