Flood deaths in Toowoomba
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Australian Broadcasting Corporation
Broadcast: 10/01/2011
Reporter: Paul Lockyer
Reporter Paul Lockyer reports on the worsening flight crisis in Toowoomba.
Transcript
SCOTT BEVAN, PRESENTER: Nature's fury seems to know no end in Queensland where the flood crisis is tonight worsening.

Heavy rain is battering the state's south-east and the Darling Downs, causing chaos.

There have been dramatic scenes in the city of Toowoomba, with a raging torrent leaving a devastating trail.

A short time ago, authorities confirmed two people had died.

Earlier I spoke to ABC reporter, Paul Lockyer, who's in Toowoomba.

Paul, from what you've heard there on the ground there in Toowoomba just how powerful, just how devastating has this flash flooding been?

PAUL LOCKYER, REPORTER: Well I think of all the images we've seen throughout this flood crisis in Queensland, Scott, this would have to be amongst the most dramatic scenes that we've ever seen.

I mean, there were cars literally picked up like matchsticks, swept along by the floodwaters. There were people clinging to light poles for their lives and emergency service workers were suddenly getting calls from all over the city for help.

There were people stranded on top of cars. Just incredible to think that in this city that could happen and it was right in the middle of the CBD (central business district).

SCOTT BEVAN: How much warning did the residents and businesses get that this wall of water was headed their way?

PAUL LOCKYER: Well there have been warnings for the last 24 hours that this big weather system was going to hit all of south-east Queensland but because I think this was a flash flood, nobody was prepared for this and it happened so quickly.

People were telling me that one moment the main street was fairly clear of water and suddenly this wall of water came through taking all before it and minutes later it was clear again. So I don't know how you can have warnings for a flash flood like that.
SCOTT BEVAN: Even though the water was gone quickly, are there operations still underway, rescue operations, in regard to residents that may not have been found yet?

PAUL LOCKYER: We know that there are other people missing. We've heard all sorts of reports about rescues that have happened and rescues that are still underway up here, not only in Toowoomba but all across south-east Queensland.

We won't know the full toll of this but much like the flood itself right across south-east Queensland, it's going to be a little while, Scott, before we know that.

SCOTT BEVAN: Paul, further west the residents of Dalby have been experiencing a recurring nightmare with flooding. You were there earlier today. What did they tell you?

PAUL LOCKYER: Well the amazing thing there Scott is that the Myall Creek, it's called a creek but it's stretched wide through the town now, and this is the fifth time in just three weeks that the people of Dalby have had to put up with flooding like this and, as the Mayor said today, it doesn't seem fair, does it?

People were just re-entering their homes after the last flood, the last big flood was on December 27th. They just got back there a couple of days ago and they're on the move again. That floodwater is still rising as we speak and it's going to be the biggest of all five flood episodes that have struck that town.

But that's just one town, isn't it, Scott, right across this entire region running from Bundaberg all the way to the New South Wales border, all the way west to St George. It's a huge area that's being consumed by these floods.

SCOTT BEVAN: So Paul, as you point out there, this is a huge area. There are these ongoing episodes of flooding all around Queensland. How are the emergency resources holding up?

PAUL LOCKYER: Well, they're very stretched, very stretched Scott. And we've seen that today here in Toowoomba. We know and we've heard from the emergency service workers that they couldn't keep up with all the calls here today.

In my travels around I've seen them stretched in all the towns that we've gone to. I mean, they do enormous work, but when you get a flood of this size, how could any emergency services really prepare for a record breaking flood that stretches over such a big area?

SCOTT BEVAN: Now, you've covered a lot of natural disasters in your career. What you're seeing there now, how does it compare with anything you have seen and experienced before?

PAUL LOCKYER: Well, it's much bigger than the floods I've seen which happened back in the 1990s here and even in the 1980s here because they're saying these floods are the biggest in the history of Queensland.

I mean, when you see some of those floodwaters that are moving down the top of the Murray Darling basin, and this is before this rain arrived, 15 kilometres wide those floodwaters are north of St George. And if you come back towards the other towns on the edge of the great divide and you talk about rainfall, 350mm fell in a day in one town just near Maryborough.

Those rainfall figures are just incredible. So this has to go down as the greatest flood that Queensland has ever confronted.

SCOTT BEVAN: Paul Lockyer in Toowoomba, thanks for your time tonight.

PAUL LOCKYER: Thanks, Scott.