Man dies in floods, tropical cyclone hits north-west
UPDATED: Floods continue in the north with one dead. Cyclone Hayley clean-up begins in WA.
Police responded to reports of a car submerged in the town of Normanton on Tuesday afternoon.
A man, aged in his 70s, was found dead inside the vehicle.
Queensland Premier David Crisfulli said Queenslanders were built tough, but the loss of the local man would impact the community.
“To experience a loss of life as a result of the flooding is a deep tragedy for the North West Community … to lose one of their own,” he said on Wednesday.
“Our big focus remains on infrastructure … it’s the roads, it’s the bridges. We have to make sure that people remain connected.”
While damage assessments are only just beginning the Premier acknowledged for many, it was part of living in Queensland.
“Queenslanders are really tough, and they are resilient, and wet season rain happens, and people will always deal with that. But that doesn’t mean that people should deal with it on their own,” he said.
Floodwaters continue to rise in outback Queensland, dozens of roads remain closed, and communities remain isolated.
Mayor of McKinlay Janene Fegan said it could be weeks before the full extent of the damage and stock losses is known.
After days of severe rain, conditions only cleared on Wednesday, allowing graziers to launch helicopters to assess the damage.
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“We just don’t know officially yet – it’s just sitting and waiting but it doesn’t look good in parts of the northwest of our Shire,” Fegan told AAP.
“We’ve been told that the water level is quite high, and there’s places that could be higher than 2019.
“I think in the next day or two, it’ll start to rear its head into exactly what we’re dealing with.”
The Bureau of Meteorology warns isolated heavy falls of 100mm are possible in parts of the Northern Goldfields and Upper Flinders, North West and Central West districts.
Six-hourly rainfall totals between 100 and 180mm are likely, with the potential of isolated falls above 220mm, in areas from about Townsville to Yarrabah.
The Bureau’s Miriam Bradbury said rain and thunderstorm activity would continue “but we should start to see more of an easing across more widespread areas late in the weekend into early next week”.
Weatherzone reports that many locations in outback Queensland have broken daily rainfall records for December and January, which are already wet months.
For example, Cloncurry Airport had 455.4 millimetres by 9am on December 30, breaking its previous highest total of 346.8 millimetres in 50 years of records.
In the 24 hours to 9am Tuesday, Queensland’s heaviest rainfall total was 362.4 millimetres at Cowley Beach, about 90 minutes south of Cairns.
South Mission Beach got 312 millimetres, followed by another 50 millimetres between 9am and 1pm.
Combined with the days before that, South Mission Beach has exceeded 850 millimetres from the weather system.
“Rainfall totals exceeding one metre (1000 millimetres) now appear likely,” said Weatherzone.
Disaster relief has been activated for five north Queensland councils following the widespread flooding caused by monsoonal rainfall over the Christmas period.
Heavy rain, life-threatening flash flooding and widespread riverine flooding are continuing across far north Queensland, with dozens of roads cut.
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Queensland Premier David Crisafulli urged those affected and anyone travelling to use the government’s disaster dashboard page for the most accurate and up-to-date information.
Cyclone weakens but damaging winds continue
In Western Australia’s Kimberley region, emergency services are assessing the damage caused by ex-tropical cyclone Hayley, which crossed the coast as a category three storm over the Dampier Peninsula on Tuesday, causing widespread electricity outages.
It has weakened to a tropical low with wind gusts around 95km/h.
Residents at the Lombadina community, at Cape Leveque on the Dampier Peninsula, reported that two homes had lost their roofs, with winds up to 158km/h and 131.8mm of rain recorded.
DFES and Horizon Power were deploying planes and helicopters on Wednesday to assess damage and direct ground crews to communities that required assistance.
Nine people sought shelter in Broome, with many more seeking refuge with family and friends.
Electricity had been cut in some areas and there were widespread reports of trees being knocked down by the strong winds.
Cygnet Bay Pearl Farm managing director James Brown told ABC radio “there’s definitely some damage”.
“Even the structures immediately outside the shelter (staff) were in, have sustained roof damage, and there’s obviously trees down everywhere,” he said.
It would take days to clear the roads and then get boats out to assess the farm, he said.
The eye of Tropical Cyclone Hayley crossed the coast of Western Australia’s northern Dampier Peninsula as a category three storm about 5pm on Tuesday.
Sustained winds of 120km/h swirled near the centre of the cyclone along with gusts of up to 165 km/h, according to the Bureau of Meteorology.
The region faces heavy rain with the potential for flash flooding.
The storm comes on the heels of Tropical Cyclone Fina, a category-three system that hit Darwin in late November.
-with AAP
