Townsville flood disaster continues, residents told to ignore 'fake' text message

Updated

Authorities in Townsville are warning the city's residents to ignore a "fake text message" claiming the Ross River Dam is at risk from the city's ongoing rain and flood emergency.

Key points: Extra water is being released from the Ross River Dam

People will be evacuated from nearly 100 homes in Townsville suburbs

Authorities have performed 28 rescues and say dozens of homes have been inundated by floodwaters

Residents in parts of six Townsville suburbs were urged on Friday to secure their belongings and move to higher ground as increased rain forces the local council to release more water from the dam.

About 90 homes are thought to have been evacuated from suburbs including Cluden, Rosslea, Hermit Park, Oonoonba, Idalia and Railway Estate, due to the risk of flooding.

Townsville Council had warned that properties in the suburbs of Condon, Rassmussen, Kelso, Kirwan, Jensen, Burdell and Deeragun areas could experience intense rainfall on top of already elevated flood levels.

But late on Friday, the Townsville Local Disaster Management Group urged residents to dismiss any message suggesting the dam was at risk.

Police are investigating the origin of the fake text.

The council said flash flooding was possible in areas adjacent to Bohle River, Saunders Creek and Stoney Creek.

Townsville Mayor Jenny Hill said the decision had been made to release more water from the city's dam than would normally be released under the emergency action plan.

"The reason we've taken this decision is to reduce the risk of flooding based on the best data we've been able to get from our various sources," she said.

"We will have crews now going out door knocking the individual homes that will be at risk.

"We haven't taken this decision lightly, we're looking into what could happen over the next two to three days, we know that we're seeing really a record event, we know that the Ross River has hit a new milestone in terms of outflows out into the ocean with a one-in-a-100-year event."

Council warned residents of Idalia that access to the area would be restricted once the spillway gates were opened.

An evacuation centre has been set up at Heatley Secondary Council.

Emergency Services Minister Craig Crawford said it would be up to insurance companies whether houses flooded from the dam's water release were covered.

"Insurance will be part of the conservation in the Townsville area for the next couple of weeks," he said.

"This will be an area of interest for me to see how the insurance industry reacts to this and whether they consider any difference between water that came down the river from the rain or from the dam release."

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said on Friday she endorsed the decision to release water.

"The bureau has briefed us today that we expect the conditions to continue, for Townsville to receive large amounts of rainfall especially over the next two days and going into Sunday," she said.

"This concentration of this monsoonal trough that is sitting now over Townsville does mean that it is basically not just a one-in-20-year event, [it's] a one-in-100-year event."

QFES Commissioner Katarina Carroll said more resources had been brought in to deal with the flooding.

"We have conducted some 28 rescues already and where we'd like to get in and start looking at what damage has been caused and conduct those assessments, our resources have been pulled away to rescue people," she said.

"That's ranging from rescuing people caught in flash flooding, minor flooding and major flooding, caught on roofs, you name it.

"We have had 50 houses already impacted in some way through inundation or structurally but I expect that to rise as well."

A Hermit Park resident said he had never seen a rain event like it.

"Around about 6:00am this morning, we had water starting to run into the shed where the cars are parked," he said.

"I think sandbagging at this stage would be like throwing sand bags at the bottom of a pool.

"We moved stuff up slowly as we could but heavy furniture we couldn't move."

Council has provided residents with more than 25,000 sandbags so far and sourced another 18,000.

Townsville resident Guy Woods said his street in the suburb of Aitkenvale was underwater.

"We just looked out the bedroom window and there's this bloke in a kayak paddling past," he said.

An early morning landslip was triggered at a street at Wulguru, in Townsville's south, after a massive deluge overnight Thursday.

Police have evacuated nearby homes after seeking advice from engineers.

A second landslip near a unit complex in Townsville City prompted the evacuation of several properties on Thursday.

Bureau of Meteorology's Dr Richard Wardle said the next few days are uncertain.

"This event is unusual because of the prolonged nature of the daily rains that we're seeing," he said.

"We're expecting high daily rainfall totals with some locations possibly recording up to 400mm per day for a number of days.

"It's a real thin convergence of really, really heavy rain that's been sitting over Townsville.

"We've seen some locations record over 1000mm, that's a metre of rainfall in three days."

Rainfall for the last seven days to 9am Friday: Upper Bluewater 1230mm

Paluma 1181

Upper Black River 1034

Woolshed 1008

Upper Major Creek 877

Townsville airport 706

Giru 341

Sandy Plateau near Proserpine had the highest of 1268mm

A separate emergency alert has been issued for residents in the Bluewater, Black River, Beach Holm, Toolakea and Yabulu areas to move to higher ground due to the risk of flash flooding from rapidly rising water levels.

The Bureau of Meteorology's Rick Threlfall said Bluewater had a major downpour on Friday morning.

"[It] looks highly likely there'll be significant and very dangerous flash flooding in that area again this morning with that rainfall that has just gone over them in the last couple of hours," he said.

"All the catchments are all very primed. We've got major flood warnings on a number of rivers in that area."

A man who was missing overnight Thursday from Giru, prompting a search of floodwaters, has been found alive and well.

Police were concerned he may have entered the water in an effort to return home, but he had stayed with a friend instead.

In a separate incident on Friday, a mother and child spent hours stuck on a boat between their house and shed in the Bluewater area, north of Townsville.

QFES said the pair managed to get into their house when the water receded.

The heavy rain is predicted to continue into next week across Townsville and surrounding areas.

All schools in Townsville are closed on Friday the orders of Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk, who has declared the city a disaster area.

Supermarket stocks have been thinning in Townsville, but Woolworths said it had 14 semitrailers waiting south of the river for when the roads opened again.

Woolworths has also been using inland roads to take groceries into Townsville via Charters Towers.

Topics: floods, weather, emergency-incidents, storm-event, rainfall, emergency-planning, townsville-4810, giru-4809, brisbane-4000, qld

First posted