Entire town to be evacuated after ‘next level’ flooding
Laine Clark |
An entire town will be evacuated after ex-Tropical Cyclone Jasper caused “next level” flooding in far north Queensland.
Hundreds of people have been rescued while a group trapped on roofs – including a seven-year-old child at Wujal Wujal hospital – have been moved to higher ground north of Cairns.
The Australian Defence Force is heading north to help the evacuation effort, with the Aboriginal community of Wujal Wujal – about 300 people – to be relocated to Cooktown.
Queensland Premier Steven Miles said there had been record-breaking rain across far north.
“This … rainfall is next level,” Mr Miles said.
Queensland Police Commissioner Katarina Carroll said the Wujal Wujal community would be evacuated to the Cooktown PCYC as soon as emergency services could reach them.
“The greatest challenge so far for everyone has been access into some of these areas and will continue to challenge us,” she said.
Nine people, including the seven-year-old and health workers, were stranded on top of the Wujal Wujal hospital before relocating when flooding levels eased.
Another seven people stuck on another Wujal Wujal roof have safely moved to higher ground.
But nine people remain on houses at nearby Degarra and Bloomfield.
State Disaster Coordinator Shane Chelepy said they had been in contact on the phone and were safe but everything would be done to help them as soon as possible.
“Being on the roof at the moment is the safest location for these people,” he told reporters.
“The water through those areas is moving very rapidly and for us to start taking rescues at this point in time would be highly unsafe.”
Up to 300 rescues have done north of Cairns with about 14,000 people still without power.
Communities are isolated by floodwaters from Cooktown to Innisfail after almost one metre of rain fell overnight with more showers and thunderstorms expected.
More than 1000 calls for assistance were received, with hundreds of people evacuated north of Cairns with HMAS Cairns naval base assisting.
“We have heroes on the ground who have been out all night. We deployed literally every boat we could get our hands on Cairns,” Mr Miles said of the overnight rescues.
The Australian Defence Force is sending more troops from Townsville while emergency services will be airlifted to Cairns on Monday.
Mr Miles said Nikki Boyd would assist the effort after being sworn in as the new Fire and Disaster Recovery Minister on Monday.
All major state roads in the far north district are closed, with authorities predicting some areas will require months of repair work.
The far north has been inundated from a trough associated with ex-tropical cyclone Jasper which is lingering on the peninsula’s west coast.
There has been major flooding at the Daintree where river levels peaked at 15m, eclipsing the 2019 record of 12.6m.
The Barron River near Cairns has peaked at 4.4m – the highest level seen since 1977.
There are flood warnings for the Mossman, Murray, Herbert, Tully, Johnstone and Mulgrave rivers.
Yandill near the Daintree has received 684mm since 9am on Sunday while Myola near Mossman recorded 638mm and the Cairns airport 307mm.
A severe weather warning remains in the far north for Port Douglas, Daintree village, Wujal Wujal, Cooktown and Hope Vale but not Cairns.
But Cairns is cut off and the airport is closed with some planes underwater.
Cairns residents have been told to conserve water.
Rain is finally set to ease on Monday as the ex-cyclone gradually moves north.
“However, we do have several hours of heavy rainfall before the system is able to weaken and move away,” the Bureau of Meteorology told AAP.
AAP
