Flood-beaten Lismore residents have once again been told to evacuate the city as intense rain delivers a new weather crisis to Australia’s east coast.
Emergency services at 11.30am on Monday urged people in the Lismore CBD, Lismore Basin and low-lying areas of east Lismore and Girards Hill to evacuate by 4pm as another flooding event threatens to swamp the region.
Rain is continuing to wreak havoc in the area, with “life-threatening” flooding hitting the Northern Rivers and South East Queensland for the second time in a month.
The Bureau of Meteorology was warning major flooding could hit Chindera, Bandora, Bilambil Heights, Kingscliff and the Richmond, Wilsons, Orara and Bellinger rivers.
Residents of low-lying parts of Lismore and Mullumbimby in northern NSW were last night given hours to evacuate their homes, with SES and Australian Defence Force troops doorknocking residents.
The SES told residents to be out of their homes by 10pm, with people rushing to secure their belongings before going to an evacuation centre at Southern Cross University.
Moderate to major flooding is expected to occur along Lismore’s Wilsons River, with levels expected to exceed the minor flood level of 4.2m on Tuesday afternoon.
NED-5862-SEQ-Flood-emergencyA devastated Lismore Mayor Steve Krieg said emotions were running high, with many residents still facing weeks of cleaning up from the last floods.
“Probably the best way to describe it is frustration, we’ve had a full week hard slog of cleaning… and we’re just coming to the realisation of the damage that (last flood had on us,” he said.
“We’re just sort of coming to terms and trying to settle into some kind of normality and then we have this thrown at us.”
Cr Krieg, who spoke to NCA newswire just minutes before the new evacuation order was issued, said the most immediate concern was to provide people with a roof over their heads.
He said he was proud of his community for their resilience and willingness to lend a hand event when physically and emotionally exhausted.
“I’m still on the verge of tears every single day, I make no apology for that,” he said.
“I’m living through it with everyone else… and you know, it is draining and exhausting, but in all honesty, I would rather be nowhere else than doing what I’m doing and meeting the most beautiful people that you’ll ever meet and being there for the community to have a shoulder to cry on.
“And, you know, the good news is I can cry on the community shoulder as well … and we‘re all in it together, and we’re working through it as a group as a as a city and we’ll come out the other side bigger and better.”
Bureau meteorologist Ben Dominsello said the rain was expected to worsen in the next 24 to 36 hours, with at least 300mm expected to fall.
“A coastal trough is expected to deepen over northeastern NSW causing heavy rainfall with embedded thunderstorms,” the bureau said.
“Six-hourly rainfall totals between 80 to 140mm are possible, reaching up to 200mm over coastal areas and ranges.“
Storms and heavy rain are also affecting communities closer to Sydney, with trees falling on a home and across roads in Windsor in the city’s northwest.
A separate flood warning has been isxjmtzywsued for parts of the Hunter, Hawkesbury Nepean and northwestern NSW rivers.
“Minor to moderate flooding possible for other coastal catchments between the Tweed and Hawkesbury Nepean Valley,” the bureau said.
Warragamba Dam is expected to spill again on Tuesday, with the bureau saying it is “actively monitoring” and updating flood watches and warnings.
Floods are again threatening South East Queensland, with Burleigh Waters copping a drenching of 296mm of rain on Monday after a severe thunderstorm pounded the Gold Coast.
The community of Dalby, west of Brisbane, was inundated overnight, with flash flooding hitting the town from the Myall Creek and Condamine River.
The bueau has warned the flooding could peak early on Tuesday at 3.65m – close to the 2011 flood heights.
While the rain is not expected to cause the same levels of flooding from four weeks ago, the already-wet catchments meant flooding was still expected in the state’s southeast.
A man and five dogs died before 5am on Monday after a ute and trailer belonging to a pet-moving business was found submerged in floodwaters near Kingsthorpe.
The female driver of the ute was rescued and saved, but the man died.
The body of a second man – aged in his 40s – was found on Tuesday morning more than a day after he was washed away while trying to escape his flooded car near Toowoomba.
The state has now lost 15 lives to the flood disaster in the past six weeks.
Disaster Management Co-ordination Superintendent John Bosnjak told reporters that “some people just don’t seem to listen” to the emergency services warnings.
“Some people have been very unlucky, driving at night into flooded water, being washed away into rapid waters,” he said.
“Other people have just made very poor choices and end up losing their life.”
Emergency services are warning residents along the entire east coast to avoid floodwaters.
