Record breaking floods damage homes and businesses
Date published: 7 February 2019
Townsville has been through the biggest floods on record with thousands of properties damaged.
Townsville Local Disaster Management Chair Mayor Jenny Hill said the floods had eclipsed previous records for the city.
“The Townsville floods were much bigger than a 1 in 100 year event,” Cr Hill said.
“A team of experts is currently analysing the data but it is clear that the flood levels in the Ross River were greater than a 1 in 500 year event.
“There were rainfall totals over parts of the Ross River Dam catchment during the past week that were in excess of 1 in 2000 year rainfall events.”
Staff from a range of agencies have been checking households and other infrastructure for flood damage.
As of 5pm Thursday, almost 1,500 homes and commercial properties had been identified as having damage rating as minor, moderate or major.
Cr Hill said there was a huge amount of damage across the city.
“There is still a large amount of the city waiting for damage assessments and it will be a long road to recovery,” Cr Hill said.
“At the moment we are looking at around 80 properties that were inundated by more than one metre of water, 489 with 25cm to 1 metre and 870 with less than 25cm.
“This number is going to grow over the coming weeks as we work out exactly how much damage has occurred throughout Townsville.”
For more information listen to local radio, phone 1800 738 541 or visit Council’s Emergency Management Dashboard disaster.townsville.qld.gov.au
