Disaster Committee Update

2013 floods — SES crews inspect flood damage to River Road, Kingaroy this morning (Photo: Peter Verbakel)

January 27, 2013

Although the rain has been easing, the road situation is still extremely dangerous in the South Burnett and residents have been urged to stay at home and off the streets.

Not only is there still water across many roads – and most major highways throughout the region are cut – but there is still a lot of water working its way down creeks and rivers from other parts of the catchment, so levels may start to fall and then rise again.

There has also been significant road damage with washouts reported to the South Burnett Regional Council in many places.

“The bottom line is all towns are isolated,” Mayor Wayne Kratzmann told southburnett.com.au after this evening’s meeting of the South Burnett Local Disaster Management Group.

The road between Nanango and Kingaroy briefly re-opened this afternoon but then was cut again. The Bunya Highway to Kumbia has also been closed again.

There is major issue with damage to Proston-Boondooma Road.

Council will have gangs out as soon as possible to start the clean-up and repairs but the damage done is on the scale of the 2011 floods, or even worse.

“It is the velocity of the water this time that has been causing so much damage,” Cr Kratzmann said.

“The concern is that we are getting reports from the catchments, both north and south of Kingaroy, that levels are two metres higher than the 2011 floods so there is a lot more water to work its way down.

“And another difference … in 2011, our dams were basically empty; now they’re full.”

Cr Kratzmann said reports coming in indicated that many of the areas repaired after the 2011 floods have again been badly damaged, including major repairs completed just weeks ago.

* * *

The State Emergency Service responded to 75 calls throughout the South Burnett overnight and during today, including a swift water rescue.

Queensland Fire & Rescue staff also worked with the SES to retrieve stranded residents.

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Queensland Health and the Queensland Ambulance Service are prepared for any emergencies, Cr Kratzmann said.

Medical staff – nurses and doctors – are available in all the major towns.

Six acute care beds have been opened at Wondai Hospital in case of emergency and there are currently two patients there.

Two mid-wives are also on call in Wondai if they are needed to assist a pregnant woman whose baby is almost due.

There are seven patients at Murgon Hospital.

A helicopter may be called in to evacuate a pregnant woman and renal patients from Cherbourg Hospital.

The QAS had 12 call-outs today but these were to non flood-related incidents.

Lifeline has offered community recovery and counselling to all residents.

* * *

Water, water everywhere but …

“Barambah Creek is still rising and the pumps there have gone under which means that immediate water restrictions have been imposed on Wondai and Murgon,” Cr Kratzmann said.

Council has been forced to disconnect the raw water pumps that supply water to the Murgon and Wondai Water Treatment Plants.

These will not be reconnected for several days.

Residents in both Murgon and Wondai have been requested to restrict water consumption to essential internal home use only. No external use is permitted until further notification.

The Proston water supply is functioning normally.

Council is monitoring the Kingaroy wastewater treatment plant but it is operating normally at present.

* * *

A priority for the Disaster Management Group is Smithfield Fieldlot, on Okeden Road near Proston.

The feedlot, which usually houses between 15,000 and 20,000 cattle, has enough feed until Wednesday.

Road access is now impossible so fodder drops may have to be organised.

* * *

There’s been some good news from Stanwell.

Member for Nanango Deb Frecklington reported to the Committee that Stanwell has notified that there are no problems with their ash dam.

During the 2011 floods, the Black Creek Dam overflowed for the first time causing erosion to the adjacent 250ha ash dam.

Building a $26 million diversionary channel to protect the ash dam from flood damage has been planned but construction work has not yet begun.

* * *

There’s also good news from the Blackbutt Range.

Mrs Frecklington said she had not been notified of any problems with the Range or the multi-million dollar roadworks taking place. Two lanes remain open as normal.

* * *

Ergon Energy is working on power supply issues throughout the region.

Wondai was without power from 3:00am-9:00am and Proston also lost power overnight.

Most areas had power during the day although reports of outages started coming through again this evening.

For more information about outages, see the Ergon Energy website

* * *

Council is closely monitoring the situation at Gordonbrook Dam.

Gordonbrook Dam stabilised at 2.3m over the spillway this afternoon (at 8:00pm it was 2.23m).

The dam’s Emergency Management Plan has been activated but will go to another level if it reaches 2.5m.

Cr Kratzmann said there is a good chance of more rises overnight as water from upper parts of the catchment flows into the dam.

* * *

Overnight, residents are asked to ring the following numbers:

Life-threatening situations 000
Emergency assistance (SES) 13-25-00
Any other inquiries, ring Council on (07) 4189-9100 (this will divert to Council’s emergency service overnight and be manned again from 6:00am in the morning. In the event of any major emergency overnight, council staff will come straight back to work).

The next meeting of the Disaster Management Group will be held at 7:30am tomorrow (Monday, January 28).

* * *

UPDATE January 28: The grass runway at the Kingaroy Airport is closed. Council will advise when the runway is re-opened. However the tarmac runway is open and the fuel supply is operational.

UPDATE January 29: Kingaroy Airport Runway 16/34 is still open but Runway 34 has been reduced by 450m on the approach side. It is anticipated this reduction in length will apply for one week. NOTAM C1/13 and C2/13 are current. The grass runway remains closed.