By Marty Silk in Brisbane (updated 1.30pm)
A NORTH-west Queensland town is waiting for its worst-ever floods to peak, with multiple communities and outlying cattle properties isolated as heavy rain leaves the state’s west and south at risk of flash floods.
The Albert River at Burketown has already surpassed the record 6.78-metre flood of 2011, and the Bureau of Meteorology says waters in the Gulf of Carpentaria community will likely reach their highest by Sunday.
A forecast for severe thunderstorms and rain in southeast Queensland was downgraded on Saturday, but heavy falls are still possible.
About 90 locals still in Burketown were told to pack a grab bag on Friday night after 25 elderly and sick people, along with 18 children accompanied by one of their parents, were airlifted out.
The warning was repeated on Saturday, with police urging anyone who’s still in Burketown to leave as soon as possible, especially the elderly and people with young children.
“Sewerage to the town has been compromised and power to the town will be cut off today,” police said in a statement. “It is not safe for people to remain.”
Weeks of torrential rain have overwhelmed the region’s rivers, leaving dozens of communities such as Doomadgee, Normanton and Karumba stranded on islands amid a vast inland sea.
Those towns as well as more isolated settlements and outlying cattle stations are relying on food and other supplies being sent by air and on barges.
The danger of the late-season monsoon has moved south but is expected to weaken over the weekend.
It’s expected to bring scattered to widespread showers and isolated thunderstorms to the central and southern districts, with a one-in-four chance Brisbane will receive 60mm.
A severe thunderstorm warning in the Capricornia district was cancelled on Saturday morning after Yeppoon copped 100mm in the hour to 4.11am, and 215mm across the night.
Gladstone also received 96mm over two hours.
Seqwater said releases from the Somerset Dam into the Wivenhoe Dam on the Upper Brisbane River were possible due to forecast rainfall.
“The Seqwater Flood Operations Centre has moved to the alert activation level due to the weather forecast,” the dam operator said.
Wappa Dam on the South Maroochy River was spilling on Saturday morning.
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