An SES boat has capsized in floodwaters in the North Queensland town of Ingham, killing one person. Hundreds of millimetres of rain have already been recorded across the region, and several major flood warnings have been issued. Joe O'Brien has more from Townsville.
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00:00As you can see, the rain is still pouring down here in Townsville.
00:07Just as an indication of just how heavy this is, over the last few hours, which is the
00:13start of the new day for the Bureau of Meteorology in terms of measuring what's happening, 140
00:20mils of rain has fallen just in the last couple of hours at a spot up near Ingham.
00:24And Ingham is where this death has occurred.
00:28There was, over the last couple of days, there have been 700 mils at the Wallaman Escarpment.
00:34That rain was pouring down from there into the Herbert River and surging down through
00:39Ingham.
00:40We heard from the Mayor of that area a little earlier this morning describing how locals
00:45were expecting this was going to be the worst flood that they'd had in 60 years.
00:51And he was also talking about the need to be as careful as possible, and just really
00:57sad to hear just in that media conference in the last hour or so that someone has passed
01:02away.
01:03Let's take a listen to what police had to say.
01:06This is tragically, sadly, it highlights the dangers and the risks of these events.
01:13And that's why we are engaging with members of the community and asking them to heed the
01:18advice of emergency services workers.
01:21But these type of events do put our members of the community at risk, but also it puts
01:27our emergency services workers and our emergency services volunteers at risk.
01:32Yes, so there were six people in that boat, two state emergency service personnel and
01:38four civilians capsized and one woman, a member of the public, wasn't able to be saved.
01:47And so really sad news there.
01:49And just in the Cardwell area, just over the range there from Ingham, there are swift water
01:54rescues happening as well, as an indication of just how broad this emergency is affecting
02:02parts of North Queensland.
02:03But yeah, also keeping an eye definitely on what's happening in Cardwell at the moment too.
02:08So it's been about 500 mils of rain here over the past couple of days, and it's still coming
02:14down now really heavily.
02:15The concern is there could be another 600 mils over the next even 24 hours.
02:21And so there are six suburbs that are potentially badly affected and are in what's called a
02:27black zone.
02:29And those people have been told to leave by now.
02:33So there are hundreds of homes involved in that.
02:38And we were down there a little earlier today, and the locals we spoke to were keen to get out.
02:44There was a lot of effort from authorities with police and military personnel door knocking
02:49through those neighbourhoods to get people out.
02:52And authorities are concerned that maybe later today, there'll be more people they have to
02:58get out from areas around those black zones as well.
03:02Because the Ross River Dam is at 140% capacity.
03:06It's had controlled releases over the past couple of days, but the level keeps rising.
03:11And if this rain continues as heavy as it is, the call might go out for even more homes
03:19along the Ross River to be evacuated.
03:22Okay, Joe O'Brien in Townsville.
03:25Thank you for that update.
03:26Stay safe.