Updated
A disaster situation has been declared for the Townsville area after days of heavy rain that also caused a landslip in the city, forcing authorities to evacuate several properties.
Key points
- Properties in Townsville threatened by landslip after heavy rain
- Disaster declared and all schools in Townsville ordered closed on Friday
- Monsoonal rain set to continue over north Queensland into the weekend
Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk has ordered all schools and childcare centres in Townsville to close on Friday as the emergency continues, with the Bureau of Meteorology predicting the monsoonal weather will stretch into the weekend.
The Queensland Disaster Management Committee will meet in Brisbane on Friday morning.
On Thursday afternoon police in Townsville ordered the evacuation of several properties, including a unit complex, after a retaining wall gave way as a result of heavy rain.
Police said they were advised about 1:15pm (AEST) that part of a hill behind Stanley Street had given way, damaging a retaining wall and part of the unit complex.
Officers have evacuated all residents in the block, and from two nearby properties, including a second unit complex.
No injuries have been reported thus far.
Queensland Fire and Emergency Services Assistant (QFES) Commissioner David Hermann said authorities from Townsville City Council had a structural engineer on site assessing the situation.
“The residents have been evacuated at this point in time and the Local Disaster Management Group is assisting the residents to find alternative accommodation,” he said.
Mr Hermann said authorities had earlier issued an emergency warning for the Alligator Creek area, south of Townsville, due to the heavy rain.
“Just to raise a level of awareness amongst the community down there and give the community some specific instructions about how to protect themselves from the current weather event,” he said.
“At this point it’s all good, but they have received a significant amount of rain down there around lunchtime today.”
Queensland Police Service Acting Chief Superintendent Steve Munro urged residents to be prepared for more rain over the coming days.
“Where mother nature decides to drop that rain is very unpredictable, so we ask people to be mindful of possible flash flooding,” he said.
Further south, residents in low-lying areas of Giru have been urged to evacuate to higher ground after an emergency alert was issued for major flooding.
The town has been isolated by the closure of the Bruce Highway.
However food is still reaching the region, with Woolworths confirming its trucks have used inland routes to take regular loads from Charters Towers into Townsville and further north.
Residents in low-lying areas have been advised to secure their belongings and move to higher ground where possible.
The Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) has also warned of significant flash flooding that may pose a risk to life at Mt Piccaninny near Townsville.
The BOM predicted six-hourly rainfall totals of up to 200 millimetres, with isolated heavier falls in some parts of the Townsville region, to continue on Thursday afternoon.
The area around Paluma received 859mm over the past seven days and 365mm was recorded at Upper Bluewater, west of Townsville, since 9:00am on Wednesday.
The Haughton River is expected to remain at major flood levels for the next few days.
Two French tourists having a lucky escape after they drove their car into floodwaters at Giru about 9:00pm on Wednesday.
Swift water crews managed to rescue the pair who were forced to take refuge on the roof of their car.
BOM senior forecaster Lauren Pattie said a severe weather warning is current for the southern end of the North Tropical Coast, as well as for the Herbert and Lower Burdekin.
“We do expect to see a fresh burst of the monsoon. It reinvigorates and because of that we start to see enhanced rainfall again for these regions and it continues pretty much for the entire week … so heavy falls up north,” she said.
Bluewater State School, Giru State School, Rollingstone State School and Woodstock State School remained closed on Thursday.
The Bluewater Community Centre at Forestry Road and the Alligator Creek Bowls Club have been opened as evacuation centres for residents who are concerned about flooding to their homes.
Bluewater resident Roger Goodwin said his backyard and downstairs area were destroyed after the force of the floodwater blew out a wall.
“I was just aghast at the pace of the water and when it started to hit about 2 metres high the debris was hitting posts under the house,” he said.
“The noise was deafening at some points and it got scary — I saw the rescue helicopter and I thought I could be in that soon.”
Mr Goodwin’s ute was also pushed up against his front stairs.
Ky Brennan, 10, stayed home from school to help clean up his home in Bluewater, which was destroyed by floodwater.
“We had 24 chooks and they’ve died — we’ve got four left and our bird died and it’s just a mess everywhere,” he said.
“[My bedroom] is a disaster — everything’s destroyed — lots of things will need to be replaced.”
Bluewater resident Michael Nieminen was at home when floodwaters rose rapidly on Wednesday.
“I was here watching it happen. It come up that quick you couldn’t really do anything. I went to go start moving stuff from the shed but the water come up that fast, it was that strong, it was too late,” he said.
His entire shed was destroyed, including quadbikes and buggies he bought his children for Christmas.
Mr Nieminen said he had lived in the area for five years and had never seen anything like it.
“The rate it came up and the rate is was flowing, talking to other people that have lived here longer no one has seen anything like this, it took everyone by surprise,” he said.
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