More than six months' rain recorded in three days with Townsville due for more

ABC NEWS (Australia)

Floodwaters are rising for the third day across parts of north Queensland, with some pockets recording more than a metre of rain since Saturday.

Transcript

00:00A couple of the facts that we learned from that media conference just within the last

00:05half hour, Roz, 11 more swift water rescues overnight, a detail about that lady who died

00:13in Ingham when the SES boat flipped, she was in her 60s.

00:20One bit of positive news from that media conference was the Bureau saying that this system does

00:25seem to be easing a little in the context of things.

00:29Yesterday they were talking about rainfall totals expected in around up to 600 millimetres.

00:37Today they're talking about rainfall totals up to 500.

00:42As much as that sounds, it's not much of a gain.

00:46It's very welcome news for people here in Townsville that this relentless rain might

00:52start to ease and it does feel like that here today.

00:57There have been spots where there has been no rain at all and it's just coming down

01:02lightly at the moment.

01:04There is concern that there will be more bands of rain come through over the coming 24 hours

01:09that could lead to rainfall totals up to 500 mils, but there's a sense that things are

01:16getting better.

01:17But the Ross River that runs through Townsville, the water is still pumping through there,

01:23there's still plenty of rain falling, 200 mils in the last 24 hours.

01:27And those areas that they're describing as the black zones, people are still out of those

01:34black zones.

01:35They were evacuated, they were told to get out by midday yesterday and authorities are

01:39urging them to stay away because it is still not safe to go back.

01:44We were down near one of those black zones a little earlier today and the level of the

01:48river was actually, it was kind of about the same as it was yesterday.

01:52Their dam for the Ross River is about 19km upstream and they are managing the releases

01:58from that effectively so far so that the river hasn't broken its banks near some of the suburbs

02:06we were near this morning at least.

02:08So hopefully that will continue to be the case.

02:12But there is ongoing concern that there could be 1,700 homes in those suburbs with water

02:17up over the floorboards.

02:19So it's raining there, albeit lightly there now, Joe, you've got a good vantage point

02:24from where you are, from the look of it.

02:26Can you show us what it's like?

02:28Yeah, well we could see, like 5 or 10, half an hour ago we could see over to Magnetic

02:36Island but that view has disappeared for the moment.

02:40And that's where those kind of the rain bands have been coming in from, generally from the

02:45nor-nor-east and it's, yeah, it really has been relentless.

02:50North Queensland is used to the heavy rain but it's just been so persistent that it's

02:56kind of, yeah, it's caught people off guard in terms of just how long it's gone on for

03:01and how persistent it's been.

03:04What's happening with other communities, you're there in Townsville, what's the situation

03:07elsewhere?

03:08Yeah, well that's another thing that we heard from that media conference.

03:12The authority's talking about the damage that there's been in Cardwell, there is water

03:17through homes there in Cardwell, that's where there's been swift water rescues.

03:21Just over the range in Ingham, there are 6,000 people now without power.

03:26It's still not clear exactly how many homes have water through them there, but the Premier

03:32in that media conference, Dave Chrisfully, was saying it's extensive and the damage to

03:36the agricultural area there around Ingham, extensive cane farming area, says that damage

03:42will be immense.

03:43Also confirmation in that media conference that homes in Blue Water on Townsville Northern

03:50Fringe, that there have been homes with water through them there.

03:54And there's also flooding down at Garoo, so it's, yeah, this system has affected such

03:59a broad range of this North Queensland coast and it's not over yet.

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