More than 1,400 Brisbane households are thought to have been flooded as Queensland authorities warn of the continuing threat posed by a “rain bomb” over the state’s south-east.
The Brisbane River peaked in the city at 3.1 metres on Sunday morning – below the 4.46m recorded during the 2011 floods. But the city’s lord mayor, Adrian Schrinner, warned this was a very different weather event.
“This is a unique event, there is no doubt about that,” Schrinner told reporters.
“In 2011 we saw the rain had stopped while the river continued to rise. Right now, we’re seeing rain bucketing down. We have a rain bomb above south-east Queensland and it continues to come down.”
Six people have died in Queensland over the past few days with a search continuing for a seventh person missing in Brisbane.
The deluge was continuing on Sunday with a severe thunderstorm warning issued for the northern regions of Brisbane, and major flood warnings in place for numerous rivers including the Upper Brisbane, Stanley, Mary, Logan, Bremer and Mooloolah rivers.
The town of Gympie recorded its highest flood level in more than a century, with more than 500 households and 130 businesses affected.
Meanwhile, more than 1.4 metres of rain was recorded at Mount Glorious, north-west of Brisbane, in the 72 hours to Sunday morning.
The Queensland premier, Annastacia Palaszczuk, said on Sunday that 1,430 homes in Brisbane were estimated to have been impacted “above the floorboards” by flooding. There were 1,040 people across the south-east in evacuation centres, 550 of those in Gympie, while Wivenhoe Dam was releasing water to ensure it retained sufficient flood capacity.
The premier revealed Wivenhoe Dam had gone from a level of 59% of drinking water capacity on Thursday to 160% on Sunday morning, prompting the releases. In 2011, releases from Wivenhoe contributed to flooding in Brisbane and Ipswich, however, authorities stressed that the dam had 2m megalitres of flood capacity in excess of the approximately 1.1m megalitres of drinking water supply.
The Brisbane River’s Sunday morning peak was 40cm higher than forecast, with the premier asked whether warnings had been sufficient.
“We expected the system to be moving [but] it hasn’t moved. We don’t control nature,” she said.
The number one message from authorities was to remain indoors and resist the urge to drive through flood waters or attempt to inspect the damage.
“I know there is a lot of curiosity out there about what is going on,” Schrinner said.
“That is natural but please, curiosity is a killer in these circumstances. Now is not the time for going out and about to see what’s going on and, sorry, now is not the time for cleaning up yet either. Now is the time to stay safe, to stay at home, to seek shelter and not to be out and about on the roads.”
Residents were also urged to stay abreast of updated warnings.
“What some people are seeing as conflicting information is a rapidly changing situation,” Schrinner said. “Information that’s one hour old is out of date. Things change on an hourly basis.”
Emergency services have received more than 6,000 requests for assistance in Queensland, and there were 21,000 customers without power, primarily in the Gympie, Brisbane and Moreton areas at lunchtime on Sunday.
Bureau meteorologist Laura Boekel said the situation in Brisbane remained difficult to accurately forecast.
“We have this very widespread area of rain but within that we are seeing very intense pockets and exactly where those intense pockets fall is something that we cannot predict and it’s something that will lead to that river rise,” she said.
With the weather system tracking south, the focus was now on Brisbane, the Gold Coast and into northern New South Wales.
“Relief will come in the early hours of Monday morning but we can expect to see this rainfall event to continue today and well into tonight as well,” Boekel said.
The NSW premier, Dominic Perrottet, said at 12pm on Sunday there were 11 flood warnings in place across the north of the state, with an evacuation order for the town of Tumbulgum and an evacuation warning in the Clarence River near Maclean.
In addition, major flood warnings were in place for Lismore, Grafton, Coutts Crossing, Kyogle and Coraki.
“We know that whilst there might be blue skies in certain parts of NSW, that that does not mean that there will not be significant flooding events that occur over the course of this week so please, please, do not be complacent,” Perrottet said.
