Levees hold steady: but water continues to rise

UPDATE: Queensland's Department of Community Safety has issued emergency alerts for areas near three towns, urging people to move to higher ground. 
 
The warnings are for areas near the Maranoa Regional Council towns of Surat, Roma and Mitchell.
The warning says all rural residents downstream of Surat on the Condamine/Balonne River are urged to move to higher ground or to neighbours in flood free areas.


All rural residents downstream of Roma on the Lower Bungil Creek are to move to higher ground, and all rural residents downstream of Mitchell on the Maranoa River are also to move to higher ground.
If residents are unable to safely evacuate, they should call 132500, and triple zero if they find themselves in a life threatening situation.

People are also asked to check on neighbours.

Levees holding steady

Levee banks around the southwestern Queensland town of Charleville continue to hold, raising hopes the embattled outback Queensland town won't be engulfed by a catastrophic flood, the state's disaster coordinator says.

As leaks appeared in the levees protecting the town, precautionary mass evacuations were ordered in the early hours of this morning while council engineers fortified the earthen defences.
Disaster Co-ordinator Ian Stewart says water from the Warrego River in the state's southwest continues to lap the top of the banks, but the threat of a collapse appears to have eased.

"There hasn't been any major breach at this stage and in fact I'm standing on top of the levee wall and I can see there's about 20cm of freeboard,'' he said in a recorded statement.

"The water is running very fast, there's a huge amount of water coming down this river and certainly I'll be talking to authorities here as to all of their contingencies in the case of a failure in the levee bank.

"But it doesn't look likely that will happen - the water is still slowly rising though and we expect that to be the case until lunch time today at least.''

The flood level at Charleville reached 7.73m today and continues to rise but emergency services say there is no clear indication yet of exactly when it will peak.

There are more than 500 people registered in the town's evacuation centres.

Prime Minister Julia Gillard said eight Defence Force choppers had been sent to help with search, evacuation and resupply missions through the southwest.

"The ADF tasked two Black Hawk and two Kiowa helicopters, which arrived in Roma at 10.20pm (AEST) and commenced operations to search for, evacuate and resupply people affected in the Roma area,'' Ms Gillard said in a statement.

Queensland Premier Anna Blight also says it looked as though the banks would hold.

"Right now the levee is holding and on all current forecasts it's likely to keep doing that, but there's not very much room for error," Ms Bligh told reporters.

"There's a 24 hour watch on the levee and if there's any change we'll be actioning it immediately."
"Right now their homes are dry, but they'll be sleeping in the evacuation centres tonight just as a precaution, and that's the right thing to do," the Premier said.

Ms Bligh said the people of Charleville were coping with their third major flood in as many years.
"That's too many, and there's a lot of heartache here today.

"I've spoken to people who are very close to tears and they certainly don't want to see those floodwaters come over the levee.

"Right now though it's very pleasing to see that levee holding those waters back, the last time the waters got to this level there was no levee in town and the water was devastating Charleville ... the levee has never been tested like this and we'll see what it's made of."

The Premier said communities like St George were now nervously waiting for the water to move downstream.

At Mitchell and Roma the flood levels were stable this afternoon, she said.

"But until the water goes down it's going to be difficult to appreciate just how much damage has been done."

With more water coming downstream, the Premier said it was possible the river height may stabilise over the weekend then peak again on Monday or Tuesday.

Mayor Mark O'Brien said the town was holding up well under the strain.

"The community is fantastic," he said.

"This river will stay up around the seven metre mark probably till Tuesday or Wednesday, so I asked 300 people this morning if they'd like to be evacuated to Brisbane and I think I saw one and a half hands go up, so that's the answer about the spirit of the people of Charleville.

"At the moment the river is at 7.6, maybe 7.7 metres and there isn't a drop of water in the town, and that is unheard of in this place."

Police say sandbagging continues in low lying areas of Augathella where some people have self evacuated.

Police will resupply the residents of Quilpie with essential items during the weekend.

The time to hesitate is through
Though the levees continue to hold,  residents  in southern Queensland towns are being told to evacuate as floodwaters continue to threaten, while a separate flood crisis in northern NSW appears to have peaked - for now.

And while the flood crisis is less dramatic than the flash flooding of a year ago, a disaster has been declared.

"We’re being very cautious and nervous until it peaks, it is touch and go," Murweh Shire mayor Mark O’Brien said.

 

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