Some locals unreachable by road and phone after catchment receives 425mm of rain in a day

This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

The Daintree River is receding after breaking a 118-year floodwater record, but some far-north Queensland residents remain cut off.

An emergency alert was issued for Daintree Village after a monsoon trough brought up to 425mm of rain in less than 24 hours from Saturday morning.

The river peaked at 12.6m close to midnight on Saturday, eclipsing the previous record of 12.4m in 1901 and higher than 10.5m at the last major flooding event in 2014.

The river at Daintree Village was 8.5m by Sunday afternoon after the heavy rainfall ceased, with forecasters predicting it would fall below six metres on Monday.

A moderate flood warning remained as residents of the town, north of Cairns, were unreachable by road and phone, while the local ferry service remained closed due to inaccessibility.

Power outages were also recorded.

“There’s been heavy falls pretty much everywhere between Cooktown to about Cardwell overnight,” the Bureau of Meteorology’s Mark Trenorden said.

“Expect the trough to move slowly south over the next day or two.”