00:00As you can see, the rain is still pouring down here in Townsville.
00:07Just as an indication of just how heavy this is, over the last few hours, which is the
00:13start of the new day for the Bureau of Meteorology in terms of measuring what's happening, 140
00:20mils of rain has fallen just in the last couple of hours at a spot up near Ingham.
00:24And Ingham is where this death has occurred.
00:28There was, over the last couple of days, there have been 700 mils at the Wallaman Escarpment.
00:34That rain was pouring down from there into the Herbert River and surging down through
00:39Ingham.
00:40We heard from the Mayor of that area a little earlier this morning describing how locals
00:45were expecting this was going to be the worst flood that they'd had in 60 years.
00:51And he was also talking about the need to be as careful as possible, and just really
00:57sad to hear just in that media conference in the last hour or so that someone has passed
01:02away.
01:03Let's take a listen to what police had to say.
01:06This is tragically, sadly, it highlights the dangers and the risks of these events.
01:13And that's why we are engaging with members of the community and asking them to heed the
01:18advice of emergency services workers.
01:21But these type of events do put our members of the community at risk, but also it puts
01:27our emergency services workers and our emergency services volunteers at risk.
01:32Yes, so there were six people in that boat, two state emergency service personnel and
01:38four civilians capsized and one woman, a member of the public, wasn't able to be saved.
01:47And so really sad news there.
01:49And just in the Cardwell area, just over the range there from Ingham, there are swift water
01:54rescues happening as well, as an indication of just how broad this emergency is affecting
02:02parts of North Queensland.
02:03But yeah, also keeping an eye definitely on what's happening in Cardwell at the moment too.
02:08So it's been about 500 mils of rain here over the past couple of days, and it's still coming
02:14down now really heavily.
02:15The concern is there could be another 600 mils over the next even 24 hours.
02:21And so there are six suburbs that are potentially badly affected and are in what's called a
02:27black zone.
02:29And those people have been told to leave by now.
02:33So there are hundreds of homes involved in that.
02:38And we were down there a little earlier today, and the locals we spoke to were keen to get out.
02:44There was a lot of effort from authorities with police and military personnel door knocking
02:49through those neighbourhoods to get people out.
02:52And authorities are concerned that maybe later today, there'll be more people they have to
02:58get out from areas around those black zones as well.
03:02Because the Ross River Dam is at 140% capacity.
03:06It's had controlled releases over the past couple of days, but the level keeps rising.
03:11And if this rain continues as heavy as it is, the call might go out for even more homes
03:19along the Ross River to be evacuated.
03:22Okay, Joe O'Brien in Townsville.
03:25Thank you for that update.
03:26Stay safe.
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