IT’S WET AND WILD
Records smashed as floodwaters drench Coast
FUN for some, but not for others.
Friday night’s deluge dumped three times the average montly rainfall on the Gold Coast.
It blocked the M1, left cars stranded – including on Barratta St, Southport (pictured) – wrecked the city velodrome and sparked 100s of emergency callouts.
The city remained in clean-up mode yesterday but Tyler Zahabi (right) had a ball.
RECORD rainfall triggered dangerous and destructive flooding on the Gold Coast that swamped cars, homes and parks but had minimal impact on city dam levels.
More than triple the city’s average monthly rainfall bucketed down during 12 hours from late Friday night, wreaking havoc across the city with areas in clean-up mode yesterday.
But the torrential downpour of a whopping 330mm had little impact on dam levels crying out for replenishment.
An SEQ Water spokeswoman said most of the rain did not run off into dams.
“Because the dam catchments have been extremely dry, much of the rain has been absorbed and did not run off into the dams,” she said.
Since the start of Friday’s rain, southeast Queensland water grid dam levels rose 0.8 per cent, from 55.3 per cent to 56.1 per cent (about 17,000 ML) by yesterday
“This is mainly due to Hinze Dam inflows. The dam has risen 3.5 per cent (11,000ML). Hinze is at 85.4 per cent this morning,” the spokeswoman said.
Wivenhoe and Somerset Dam remained “relatively steady” at 43 per cent and 64 per cent, respectively, North Pine Dam has risen by 0.9 per cent and Baroon Pocket Dam 0.8 per cent.
Little Nerang Dam has risen from 72 per cent to 90 per cent, but that only equates to about 1200ML.
The Gold Coast is one of eight councils in southeast Queensland under a State Government drought declaration.
The spokeswoman said SEQ Water would be in talks today with other authorities about the declaration and whether it would remain.
The State Emergency Service attended almost 370 callouts over the weekend, mainly for leaky rooves and sandbag requests during and after the pouring rain, driven by a super cell.
RACQ had 240 home and vehicle claims lodged across the southeast and the 10 most affected suburbs were on the Coast.
The hardest hit areas were Ashmore, Benowa, Currumbin Waters, Elanora, Helensvale, Hope Island, Labrador, Nerang, Oxenford and Southport.
The M1 was closed for more than six hours on Saturday and reopened early in the afternoon.
Dramatic footage showed cars caught in floodwaters inside a tunnel at Oxenford.
Emergency services were forced to undertake a number of swift-water rescues, scooping drivers from floodwaters.
Clear Island Waters resident Belinda Preston told the Bulletin she spent the early hours of Saturday morning knee-deep in floodwater.
Come the afternoon, she was trying to save waterlogged furniture and keepsakes.
“It came quite fast. All our furniture, rugs and tables are destroyed on the ground floor,” she said. “The rain was really heavy. I have lived here for five years and I have never seen it like this.”
While the flooding was dramatic, Gold Coast City Council expects the damage bill will be relatively small.
“Since the water receded, the damage and clean-up to the city has been fairly minor,” a spokeswoman said.
“The clean-up cost will be minimal due to the minimal structural damage to assets.”
However, floodwaters decimated Nerang Velodrome, tearing the track from its foundations.
KDV Sport’s tennis centre on Chisholm Rd got off lightly after a large amount of debris covered the courts.
Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) Queensland forecaster Kimba Wong said the Gold Coast could see more rain in the coming few days and into the next week.
“Some decent rainfall totals, but nothing like what we had Friday-Saturday,” she said.
Ms Wong said it would not take much rain to cause flash flooding again.
Loders Creek received the most rain at 330mm, but huge totals were recorded across the region, including 255mm at the Seaway.
Some of the heaviest rainfall was around Monterey Keys, which got 146mm over two hours. Notable totals included 301mm at Carrara, 297mm at Evandale, 292mm at Burleigh Waters and 239mm at Pacific Pines.
Ms Wong said the Coast can expect “relatively average conditions for the next few months”.