Queensland lashed by wild weather

[Gad]

Flooding rain from Noosa to Numbucca

Tuesday January 17, 2012 - 10:09 EDT

A low off the Queensland coast is dumping heavy rain, bringing damaging winds and whipping up dangerous seas.

Winds of up to 100 kilometres per hours are buffeting the coast from Fraser Island through to the New South Wales border.

The weather bureau's Gavin Holcombe says a low is moving south and could cause more flash flooding

"In the next 24 hours say from 9.00am, we could easily see falls in excess of 100 millimetres as we said in the warning," he said.

"We could even see falls up to 150 millimetres so that's the likely scenario."

The bureau says there will be no repeat of last year's flooding rains despite the severe conditions.

The Sunshine Coast hinterland has had the most rain so far, with falls of up to 138 millimetres recorded since 9.00am (AEST) yesterday.

Parts of Brisbane have had to 30 millimetres and some roads are closed due to localised flooding in the Brisbane suburb of Rocklea.

The wet weather has caused a number of road crashes across the region this morning and police are urging drivers to be vigilant.

Dangerous conditions have also forced the closure of many beaches along the south-east coast.

Disaster centre

The Sunshine Coast Council has activated a Disaster Coordination Centre to monitor the weather.

Coordinator Alan Fox Rogers says residents should start preparing now for possible flash flooding later today.

"The weather warning is for heavy rainfall, damaging winds and dangerous surf developing later this morning and possible this afternoon," he said.

"There could be some flooding, so people should be clearing up if there's any loose debris around the place, make sure that pets are inside and also make sure that you listen out to the weather forecasts and be aware of what's happening."

The wild weather comes just over a year after the deadly Queensland floods.

Trauma counselling expert Dr Paul Stevenson says many south-east Queenslanders are feeling anxious about weather.

"It's a normal defence mechanism, a normal reaction to having survived a trauma when that same set of circumstances come about again, we'll have some anxiety about it," he said.

Rain lashes north

There has been torrential rain in the state's north too.

About 270 millimetres of rain was recorded near Ingham, north of Townsville overnight.

Local Barbara Horsely says it is the first big downpour this wet season.

"Up until about 9.00pm we had very relatively little rain and then from then on in it just poured and poured and poured," she said.

Meanwhile, Queensland's largest dam has reached capacity after heavy rain earlier this week.

Water is now falling over the spillway at the 1.9-million-megalitre Burdekin Falls Dam, south-west of Townsville.

Dam operator SunWater has closed the spillway road and will re-open it once levels have dropped.

[tiotony]

I'm getting home on the weekend and saw monsoons are predicted for sunday in the far north, and its also a huge new moon tide. So going fishing is going to be a waste of time Guess I'm stuck with going to the pub instead :cheer:

[Dubbzy]

Just tried to send three trucks to gove for work, they reckon the roads still open! So hopefully it's not gonna be as ba as past yrs

[maxi]

its a low pressure trough ... not a low cell as such ... great rain for the garden .... lol ...