Fears of flooding, supplies shortage

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For seven days residents living on the eastern side of the Russell River have been held hostage in their homes by an unrelenting monsoon trough.

Some locals living on the Kruckow Access Rd, 2km from Babinda, say they have been forced to make dangerous four-wheel-drive crossings of the flooded Russell River, while others have made use of boats to collect supplies.

The Bureau of Meteorology is warning that widespread moderate-to-major flooding is expected in a flood watch area extending from the Daintree River to Mackay and western Cape York Peninsula catchments.

Bureau forecaster Lauren Pattie said a severe weather warning for heavy rainfall remains in effect for the Southern Tablelands.

“Because of the convergence line or banding, the trough is currently concentrated to the south around the Townsville area … and over the coming days it is expected to remain pretty stagnant (and) because Cairns is on the northern edge so you won’t see dramatic falls,” she said.

“However, there is still showers, storms and rain areas occurring. Coming on top of the 713mm at the Cairns Airport in the last week (today) we can expect 20-50mm broadly (and) on the high end of that scale about 80mm,” she said.

Queensland Fire and Emergency Service (QFES) in Cairns is focusing its efforts on areas from Innisfail south to the Cardwell Range, with extra swiftwater crews based in each of Cairns, Innisfail, Cardwell and Tully.

A helicopter contracted to QFES will be based in Cairns from tomorrow for rapid deployment and an incident control centre had been established in Innisfail, Mr Crawford said.