The wet season has descended upon Mackay in North Queensland as local roads were flooded Thursday afternoon and flights were delayed.
Key points:
- Up to 200 millimetres of rain fell across Mackay from 9am on Thursday
- The SES responded to eight jobs in 24 hours, mostly to assist with sandbagging and leaking roofs
- Emergency personnel also assisted owners of vehicles caught in floodwaters
Scott Campbell from Queensland Fire and Emergency Services (QFES) said roads that did not usually go underwater were flooded as up to 200 millimetres of rain fell across Mackay from 9am.
The State Emergency Service responded to eight jobs in 24 hours, mostly to assist with sandbagging and leaking roofs.
QFES has also assisted several cars caught in floodwaters.
Mr Campbell warned drivers to slow down as night fell.
“These roads that we’re talking about, and a lot of country roads that don’t have lighting … the water can be extremely hard to spot,” he said.
“We have Holts Road, which goes down to Glendaragh Road, and Glendaragh Road from the highway end coming back around, that doesn’t normally go underwater and it’s underwater now.
“We’ve had reports of cars driving through the water and responded to an incident not long ago.
“When we were on-site we couldn’t find any evidence of anybody in the water, so we presume they’ve driven through it and got to the other side.”
The Bureau of Meteorology has issued a Flood Watch alert for North Tropical Coast catchments and parts of the Central Coast and Gulf Country.
Mackay Airport has been contacted for comment.
Earlier Thursday SES volunteer Erik Lindbergs said cars had been cut off by floodwaters overnight in areas around Eton.
“A lot of those areas are serviced by canals that do run from the local reservoir, so those areas do flood pretty regularly, even with relatively light rain,” he said.
“When the water does come up, it does come up very quickly.”
“If there is heavy rain about, be especially careful.”
