00:01This tropical low 29U, it's coming closer to Cairns. It's going to pass right behind me and head on its
00:08way down towards Innisfail.
00:09It's a severe weather warning out at sea and a lot of the reef boats are not going to sea
00:14today to the Great Barrier Reef.
00:16Even though the Harbour Master has given them the all clear, they've opted to stay put because it's quite blustery
00:21at the moment.
00:21But there is still a major flood and emergency warning for the Daintree River and Barrett Creek up in the
00:28Daintree Rainforest area.
00:29North of here, major flood warning for Daintree Village.
00:32We had a lot of rain overnight. People have been asked to go to high ground if they can.
00:37But it seems that the Daintree River reached 14 metres, which is two metres above its major flood level.
00:45Now, the one operator, one tour operator on the river says he, his boat, it drifted downstream.
00:53He says he was lucky to be alive because he jumped off just in time.
00:56And he's shown some footage this morning of his ticket office and his business completely flooded out.
01:02Apart from that, we're not aware of any other or many other inundations or injuries.
01:08But the residents of Aiton, which is on the Bloomfield River, some of them self-evacuated and they have an
01:13anxious wait to hear if their homes are OK before they return today.
01:18Now, with the cruise boat that was slipping its moorings on the Daintree River, the Daintree Ferry, which is a
01:25cable-driven ferry which brings cars across to Daintree Village, it's the only crossing there, that slipped its moorings.
01:32It has been located only about 50 metres downstream.
01:35It has been damaged.
01:37There's been some debris caught in the cables, but it is unclear when that will be back in action.
01:42For now, residents are stranded north of the Daintree River until that ferry can be organised again.
01:48There's about 5,000 residents without power from Cooktown to the Daintree.
01:53Ergon has told the ABC that it cannot get workers over there because the ferry is out of action.
02:00Now, Queensland Police has put some officers over the...
02:03They put them over the river last night before the ferry was cut, and they are there helping mop up
02:10this morning.
02:10And Queensland Police, the SES, and Queensland Fire Department will speak to the press in a few hours, so we'll
02:18bring you more to that on the ABC as well.
02:20So, apart from that, the Douglas Shire is warning residents to keep alert, stay on top of the weather warnings,
02:28and get to high ground if you need to.
02:31There's about 1,000 residents between Cooktown and Aiton which are isolated as well, Cooktown and the Daintree.
02:39Woodjil Woodjil is one of those communities, and that was where Cyclone Jasper hit two years ago.
02:43So this is very fresh in the minds for them.
02:45They are completely isolated. There's no way in or out.
02:48So they're hoping for a bit less rain as this system moves towards Cairns and makes landfall south of us
02:54around the Innisfail-Cardwell direction today.
02:57Okay.
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