Australia: State of emergency declared in Queensland as freak weather moves south

ABC News
Thu, 21 May 2009 11:13 UTC

Weather conditions have eased on the Gold Coast after strong winds and heavy rain pounded the south-east of Queensland, prompting Premier Anna Bligh to declare a state of emergency.

Nearly all of Brisbane's major arterial roads are damaged, hospitals have cancelled services, and emergency crews have been stretched to the limit by the city's most extensive flooding since 1974.

Emergency crews in Brisbane, Ipswich and the Gold Coast are still trying to fix roofs and remove debris in the areas worst hit by yesterday's record deluge.

Flood facts

- Combined dam levels over past 24 hours increased by 9.61% to 72.30%

- Strong inflows continuing into Wivenhoe - 55.67%, Somerset - 106.37%, North Pine - 102.25%

- The past 48 hours of rainfall and inflows have added more than a year of extra supply to the system

An Emergency Management Queensland spokeswoman says many homes in the Brisbane suburbs of Ashgrove, The Gap and Oxley still have damaged roofs and a number of major roads across Brisbane remain closed.

Weather forecaster Geoff Doueal says the heavier rain has moved into northern New South Wales and some patches of sunshine are breaking through.

"It's likely to stay that way through today with a bit more sun coming through," he said.

"There'll still be some showers around and we are keeping a very close eye out to sea because we may see just a little bit of rain coming through the southern parts of the Gold Coast again tonight."

Mike Swanston from Energex says there are still 3,600 customers without power in south-east Queensland, and most of those are on the Gold Coast.

He says access problems are hampering efforts to restore power.

"The worst affected areas are generally in through Nerang, Merrimac and Carrara - that's been off since yesterday afternoon," Mr Swanston said.

"Also, the line that runs right up to Springbrook from Mudgeeraba through Natural Arch and down the valley there, that's still off and we've got reports of 11 large trees that have come down in various areas on that line."

The pounding surf is causing erosion on Gold Coast beaches.

All beaches are closed for the second day and chief lifeguard Warren Young says erosion could increase over the next few days.

"The ones that are usually a bit vulnerable, such as Narrowneck up towards the pumping jetty and some areas of Palm Beach, they're just getting scarping at the moment, but it could increase as the swell increases and the tides get bigger over the next few days," he said.

Hospital cancellations

Queensland Health says all 76 elective surgeries that had to be cancelled because of the flooding have now been rescheduled.

The operations were cancelled at Redcliffe and Caboolture hospitals, as well as at the Royal Children's, Royal Brisbane and Women's hospitals.

Queensland Health District chief executive Professor Keith McNeil says the operations were cancelled because some staff and patients had difficulty reaching the hospitals.

He says the hospitals also had to be ready for any flood emergencies.

"The reason we took the steps to cancel the elective procedures was so that we would have the capacity to look after emergency and acute cases, so no lives, absolutely no lives, were put at risk," he said.

Meanwhile, debris caused by the floods will force the cancellation of Brisbane's City Cat services this evening.

The ferries will stop operating at sunset for safety reasons and will not resume until the river is reassessed at first light tomorrow morning.

Ferries are operating on a go-slow basis, which is expected to continue for several days.

Translink says five Brisbane bus services are being diverted around floodwaters.