Beware – a hole lot of driving hazards
A PLETHORA of potholes has opened up under the weight of thumping downpours, prompting a warning for motorists to keep a watchful eye out for the landmines.
Cairns deputy mayor Terry James said even though the rain settled down on Thursday, residents would need to keep an eye out when driving along the saturated roads.
“Because of the amount of rain we had, we’ve experienced a fair few potholes,” he said.
“If we get more rain, it risks filling them in, meaning people will have to drive cautiously and to the conditions or risk damaging their car.”
Cr James said it would take time for the council to fix the majority of the potholes, as the weather would need to dry up first.
“We’ll get around to fixing them once the pavements dry out. In the meantime, we urge people to report anything urgent via the My Cairns app, the council main switchboard or the Disaster Dashboard,” he said.
Cr James said aside from a few fallen trees and service outages, the downpour didn’t yield many long-lasting issues.
“This is our traditional old wet season weather, and given it’s the end of April we’re looking forward to good weather coming soon and hopefully things drying up in May,” he said.
Though the region is set to remain damp for the time being, life is returning to normal with the bulk of showers in the rear-view mirror.
Cairns Golf Club members John Avard and Scott Cappellani on Thursday returned to the green, which had been closed for the prior three days due to the wet weather.
Mr Cappellani said while the course was pretty saturated, the club had done a good job looking after the course in the interim.
“We go out in most conditions – this sort of weather is just one of the things you have to deal with living up here,” he said. “They’d done some work upgrading the bunkers and the fairways in the last few months, which helped alleviate the damage.
“Once the rain’s past, it should look the best it’s been in a while.”
Parts of the region racked up hundreds of millimetres, with the heaviest totals hitting Mt Sophia south of Gordonvale, which received 810mm in the past week.
Other high totals were recorded at Babinda Boulders, which received 779mm, Cairns Racecourse, which received 523mm and Tully
Sugar Mill, which had 383mm.
Bureau of Meteorology forecaster James Thompson said they were still looking at a good chance of showers over the next few days and into parts of next week.
“The rain we had was caused by a tropical trough with quite a bit of moisture around that system, but after that we should be getting back to more typical showers moving across the region,” he said. “The flood watch between Cooktown and Ingham has been finalised, but there are still warnings in place due to the saturated conditions.”
The bureau has a moderate flood warning for the Tully and Murray rivers, a flood warning for the Russell River and a final flood warning for the Mulgrave River.