Queensland authorities estimate up to 15,000 properties could be affected by flood waters as the Brisbane River reached its likely peak on Monday morning, inundating low-lying areas in the city’s central business district.
Heavy rain lasting more than three days unabated in Brisbane eased at midnight on Monday, removing some of the strain that had choked suburban floodways and dumped unprecedented volumes into dams.
Eight people have now died in flood waters since last week and three are still missing.
On Sunday afternoon a 59-year-old man was swept away while attempting to cross a flooded road on foot at Taigum, in Brisbane’s outer north. Police said witnesses had attempted to give the man CPR but he died at the scene.
A man believed to be in his 50s is also presumed dead after his car was washed away in flood waters in the Currumbin Valley early on Monday. Police said they believe the man’s vehicle was driven about 30m along a flooded road. The vehicle has not been found.
The Brisbane River peaked at 3.85m on Monday morning, still well below the 4.56m peak of the 2011 flood.
An “unprecedented” volume of water, about 1,450 gigalites, entered Wivenhoe Dam in the past three days, taking its storage levels from under 60% to 183%.
By contrast, in 2011, less water entered Wivenhoe in more than six days.
Impressive work by @Seqwater Dam Operators, stabilising Wivenhoe Dam at 183% to 6:20am. Inflows will still be considerable and barriers to releasing more water to the flooded Brisbane River, great. Unprecedented flood mitigation by Wivenhoe with 1450 GL net inflows over 3 days. pic.twitter.com/nsJ7FXOH9s
— Stuart Khan (@stukhan) February 27, 2022
Some parts of Brisbane have received about a year’s annual rainfall in just a few days. More than 1.5m of rain has been recorded at Mount Glorious this week. The average annual rainfall for the town, about 30km west of Brisbane, is about 1.6m.
It is not yet known exactly how many homes were affected by flood water but what is known is that, in many places, the impacts were very different to 2011.
Queensland’s premier, Annastacia Palaszczuk, told reporters modelling had estimated as many as 15,000 houses affected.
Brisbane’s lord mayor, Adrian Schrinner, told ABC radio the city council’s modelling for a 4m Brisbane River peak – higher than the observed peak on Monday morning – indicated that about 4,500 properties, including about 2,100 residential properties, would be flooded.
An additional 10,800 properties would be partially flood-affected, according to the council’s modelling.
On Monday suburban flooding caused by swollen creeks and Brisbane River tributaries largely subsided and people were able to return to their homes to assess the damage.
But at the same time, the river peak caused inundation of low-lying banks, including the CBD, Southbank and West End. Extremely high tides are expected to continue, but abate gradually, for the rest of the week.
There remains some concern that while heavy rainfall has finally eased, storms are forecast for later in the week which might cause further chaos if river levels remain high in the meantime.
Diana Eadie from the Bureau of Meteorology said those storms posed an additional risk. “That really intense rain is now shifting into north-east New South Wales and is easing for much of south-east Queensland,” she said. “That being said, the risk for significant flooding is still very real.
“We’re expecting more settled conditions today and continuing into tomorrow. From Wednesday onwards and the following five days, we see a return of the potential for severe thunderstorm activity with the risk of damaging winds, large hail and locally heavy falls.
“We’re not expecting widespread rain as we have seen in this event, but with any severe thunderstorm, there is the potential that we could see very intense rainfall rates in some localised areas.”
Palaszczuk said there had been “a huge response effort”. “It has been fast and it has been furious and it has had a big impact,” she said.
“I don’t know about everyone else, but last night it was like cyclonic conditions outside. The winds, the rain and … we had two systems of thunderstorms merging last night as well during the course of the day. We didn’t know that was going to happen.”
She added: “All these emergency services people have been on the frontline doing the best they possibly can.
“If it wasn’t for them, there would have been a lot more loss of life. We should be thanking them for everything they have been doing. I want people to understand how much rainfall has come into these catchments and across the entire south-east.”
The police commissioner, Katarina Carroll, told reporters on Monday that in addition to the seven flood deaths, there were fears of additional fatalities after reports of people missing in flood waters at Yatala, Goodna and Esk.
A man who fell from a vessel into Brisbane’s Breakfast Creek two days ago also remains missing.
Social services groups are calling on governments to increase assistance payments for people affected by the floods.
Aimee McVeigh, the chief executive of the Queensland Council of Social Services, said: “$1,000 per adult will not cut it, especially in the face of a record-breaking housing crisis … Queenslanders have experienced devastating flooding in the past 48 hours.”
McVeigh added: “People in lower-lying areas are now facing the prospect of another brutal cleanup after another once-in-a-century flood. People in areas that have never experienced inundation are now reckoning with the fact that their homes are uninhabitable.
“Our community organisations also need access to additional emergency relief funds now. They are on the ground sourcing emergency accommodation, providing food and supply packages and crucial mental health supports.”
