Some residents in Queensland’s north have been forced to flee their homes after an overnight downpour sparked a sudden flood emergency.
Etheridge Shire Council issued a flash flooding emergency warning today for people in all areas of Einasleigh, about 380 kilometres north-west of Townsville, to evacuate.
Overnight rainfall totals tipped 220 millimetres in the Copperfield River catchment.
Bureau of Meteorology senior meteorologist Harry Clark said a number of locations saw “some very extreme totals”.
“Indeed record-breaking for January for a number of locations through there,” Clark said.
“The flooding that has resulted has been extremely rapid in some situations.”
Oak Park Race Club’s recorded almost 300 millimetres in 48 hours.
“A lot of this rainfall’s been driven by thunderstorms and that weak tropical low 18U that we’ve been monitoring for a while,” Clark said.
Einasleigh resident Chelsea Mosch told 9News the township has “pretty much gone under”.
“It’s gone through all the houses and the pub,” she said.
Mosch lives on a cattle station north of the town where the river is swelling a metre every hour.
“It’s pretty scary. We’re just packing up everything now to get to higher ground,” she said.
Coastal communities were also clipped by the system.
“Roughly between Babinda and Townsville saw a widespread 50 millimetres to 150 millimetres,” Clark said.
Two teenage boys were left high and dry in fast-moving water on Townsville’s Ross River after a fishing expedition gone wrong.
Authorities were called in to retrieve the pair.
“We received reports of two young persons stranded on Rocks at Aplin Weir, and obviously the currents were quite strong,” Townsville Police Acting Senior Sergeant Terry Phillips said.
NEVER MISS A STORY: Get your breaking news and exclusive stories first by following us across all platforms.
