More rain for flood-hit SE Queensland

Flood-hit southeast Queensland is bracing for more rain with severe thunderstorms forecast for Wednesday.

Just as river levels had begun to settle, the Bureau of Meteorology warned of more flash flooding with storms likely for Brisbane, the Gold Coast, the Sunshine Coast and Wide Bay.

A flood watch has been issued for people living along the Mary River catchment, including Gympie and Maryborough, with storms expected to hit late Wednesday morning and possibly push into the evening.

“The storms … are expected to be severe into the southeast so that means they could carry with them some stronger winds, a chance of hail as well as some heavier rainfall,” the BoM’s Laura Boekel said.

“We have conditions now where catchments are already very saturated, and when we see any rainfall after an event that we’ve just seen we can have some flash flooding.

“We want people to be aware tomorrow that it won’t take that much rainfall to see the impacts of the rain.”

Storms are expected to disrupt newly-appointed recovery coordinator Major General Jake Ellwood’s efforts after floods damaged more than 20,000 homes and businesses across the southeast, killing 13 people.

More than 1200 defence force troops were cleaning up homes and businesses in Gympie, Gatton, St Lucia, Fairfield, Graceville, Rocklea, Esk, Gatton, Grantham and Goodna on Tuesday.

The death toll rose on Monday after police found the body of a man in a car in the Condamine River, southwest of Brisbane.

Another man is missing after falling from a boat on the Brisbane River on February 26.

Deputy Premier Steven Miles said 1778 homes were severely damaged and another 2430 moderately damaged.

He said there were 17 flood mitigation projects in the pipeline, including an upgrade of Queensland’s early flood warning system.

Meanwhile, former Queensland governor Paul de Jersey will lead a three month review of Brisbane City Council’s management of the floods that inundated about 28,000 properties across the city.

More rain for flood-hit SE Queensland
Independent Information