Rain has Mark out on the tiles
Emergency services kept busy and patients transported by four-wheel drive as trough lingers
KANIMBLA resident Peter Mark mops up the dining room in his Hymes Street home after leaky roof tiles sent water everywhere. More than half a metre of rain has fallen in parts of the region so far this week closing roads and forcing an unusual transfer of patients from Yarrabah to Edmonton due to a risk of flooding.
PATIENTS of a Far North health facility were treated to a localised solution – using a custom-built four-wheel drive for transfers as more than half a metre of rain fell in parts of the region this week.
With the majority of rainfall concentrated around the Cairns Regional Council area for the first half of the week, Bureau of Meteorology forecaster James Thompson said the trough wreaking havoc was set to slowly move south on Thursday.
“But the whole region is still in a bubble of this warm air mass and it’s likely we’ll see heavy showers and thunderstorms anywhere in the north tropical coast,” he said.
“Compared to what we’ve seen so far this week, the showers may be less intense, but we can expect to see anywhere between 50-150mm in the region.”
He said conditions would remain “showery” over the weekend before easing next week.
On Wednesday a number of roads remained closed as record rain fell at Cairns Airport, surpassing the April record of 634mm set in 2006, in just 48 hours, with a whopping 226mm recorded to 9am Wednesday.
The Gillies Range Road was closed for the second time in two days due to flooding at Evans Creek near Peet’s Bridge and police had advised the highway was closed between Boar Pocket Road and Vico Road.
Paramedics were kept busy with the Captain Cook Highway between Holloways Beach Road Yorkeys Knob Road in a gridlock in the morning as ambulance crews struggled to attend a singlevehicle rollover.
There were reports of “hundreds of metres of traffic barely moving” along the highway from 9am, following the SUV rollover incident at the Captain Cook Highway and Holloways Beach Road intersection which had reduced the northbound lanes.
And a special custom-built four-wheel drive that usually navigates the Far North’s rainforest creeks and rocky outback trails was recruited to transfer patients from Yarrabah to Edmonton.
Due to the risk of flooding, a Billy Tea Safaris vehicle was used to transfer more than a dozen renal dialysis patients from Yarrabah Emergency Service facility, to the Cairns South Health Facility on Walker Rd, Edmonton.
Cairns and Hinterland Hospital and Health Service executive director rural and remote services, Tracey Morgan, said while the Pine Creek Yarrabah Rd was not yet flooded, there was a risk that the patients would be cut off from care if the wet weather continued.
“We needed to move these patients closer to care,” she said.
“The heavy rain we have been receiving since the weekend has meant that we have not been able to get dialysis supplies to Yarrabah and our patients are already using emergency stocks.
“In a situation like this, if the roads were cut, we would be looking at transferring our patients via air or sea.
“We are taking advantage of the current conditions that make road transfers still safe and are very thankful that we have the assistance of Billy Tea Safaris for this unusual trip.”
She said at this stage, it was still business as usual for all of the Health Service’s facilities across the Cairns and Hinterland region.
“Our facilities are well prepared and ready to respond if a disaster situation emerges,” she said.
The region’s State Emergency Services teams have also had a busy week, but the Far North region area controller Peter Rinaudo said the type of callouts crews were receiving were “disappointing”.
He said since Sunday crews had been called to 61 jobs, including 51 in the Cairns Regional Council area, and 10 in surrounding local government areas.
“The majority of those have been assisting with flooding – preventing floodwaters entering properties and structural with leaking roofs. It’s been about 50-50
with that,” he said.
“We’ve mainly just had tarping jobs or sandbagging jobs to divert water.
“We always encourage people to take the opportunity to do that little bit of maintenance when they can. It saves them a lot of problems in heavy downpours.
“So it’s been disappointing to see that a lot of jobs we have been called to, with a bit of preparation, they could have been avoided.”
Mr Rinaudo said it was “business as usual” for SES crews who despite the number of jobs, weren’t feeling pressured thanks to minimal wind and were well prepared.
Meanwhile, generally regarded as the wettest part of the country, Cassowary Coast towns have reported slightly lower rainfall totals than the Cairns area.
Tully topped the charts with 188mm of rainfall to 9am Wednesday while a flood warning for the Tully and Murray Rivers remained in place as levels continued to rise.
“The Tully River at Euramo will remain above the minor flood level (6m) during Thursday. Higher levels are possible as heavy rainfall continues during the next few days,” the warning read.
“The Murray River at Murray Flats is currently at 6.70 metres (below minor) (on Wednesday). Higher levels are possible as heavy rainfall will continue during the next few days.”
And while many Far Northerners may be expecting the weekend’s events to be postponed due to the wet weather, organisers said the Savannah Pool Party music festival will go ahead. The show features a line-up including Thirsty Merc and Adam Brand at the Cairns Novotel Oasis Resort on April 23-24.
“We’re not letting the weather rain on our parade. In fact, we’re embracing it,” a spokesman said.