Mammoth flood clean-up

Queensland communities are on the brink and facing a mammoth clean-up after torrential downpours of up to 350mm inundated homes and forced residents to swim for their lives.

Areas just outside Brisbane were the hardest hit with 350mm recorded in Samford and more than 200mm at Caboolture, Bray Park, Warner, Highvale, Eatons Hill and Clear Mountain.

From Laidley, north to the Sunshine Coast, multiple communities were hit by the huge deluge, leading to multiple school and road closures across the state.

Falls overnight on Tuesday of more than 160mm in isolated areas on the Sunshine Coast into Wednesday added to the nerves for homeowners.

The Bureau of Meteorology confirmed falls of more than 150mm on the Sunshine Coast – causing roads to be cut and flights to be cancelled and diverted – but that the system that delivered the intense rain had moved away.

“Yesterday and overnight, the heaviest falls in southeast Queensland were roughly around just north of the Sunshine Coast area where we saw falls during that 100 to 150mm,” senior meteorologist Dean Narramore said on Wednesday.

“The highest falls have been 163mm at one of our gauges at Bell’s Creek on the Maroochy River.

“But further out, some of the heaviest falls further north with those storms last night inland of Mackay and Bowen was around 150 to 100mm,” Mr Narramore said.

“Mackay had 82 and some of our gauges on the Proserpine River had 134mm, and finally further west with that heavy rainfall … we saw a number of areas south of Cloncurry getting at least 50 to 100mm,” he said.