Record rainfall continues to pound Far North Queensland in the wake of Cyclone Jasper, with planes underwater at Cairns Airport, more than 250 emergency rescues overnight, and people trapped on the roof of the hospital in Wujal Wujal.
More than 820mm of rain has fallen in the Daintree River Catchment since Sunday morning, with the Barron River and Daintree both rising well beyond major flood levels. Rain is expected to ease this afternoon, but the emergency is ongoing.
Queensland Deputy Police Commissioner Shane Chelepy spoke to the media this morning, saying the Aboriginal community of Wujal Wujal has received 260 millimetres of rain overnight, with nine people trapped on the roof, including health workers and a seven year old child, and emergency services unable to reach them so far.
He said the ADF has provided terrific support with 250+ rescues across the wider region overnight via HMAS Cairns, and more ADF personnel coming from Townsville today, but with deteriorating weather conditions continuing to make it difficult to get helicopters into the air.
Deputy Commission Shane Chelepy said people were continuing to drive into floodwater, endangering themselves and rescue personnel, as well as slowing the emergency response.
He said there were 10,000 homes without power, down from 40,000 soon after the cyclone crossed the coast. ‘We have a lot of isolated communities where we just can’t get people in,’ he said.
As rain continues to fall, boosted by higher than normal ocean temperatures for this early in the season, incoming Queensland Premier Steven Miles has said this morning that the current disaster is ‘about the worst I can remember’.
Far Northern Queensland has entered the summer wet season. This means the possibility of devasting cyclones and flooding rains.
When my husband and myself moved from Victoria to Tweed Shire almost 13 years ago, we were met with the tail of two cyclones that had become intense tropical depressions. Thankfully, we are up high and flood safe, however, others were not so fortunate. We watched the Tweed River rising over 2 days and then break its banks. Fingal and the homes that were not up high got very wet indeed.
We need to take stock of what is our usual weather patterns, now and way back in time, where it was our farmers who provided the data.
We all feel for those who are currently being flooded out, the sad truth is this darn cyclone Jasper decided to be stationary, and this has caused the damage. We should not blame normal weather events such as cyclones on climate change
The precipitation power of Cyclone Jasper isn’t normal – record rain dumps in parts of Nth QLD.
This is what global boiling delivers, it is a taste of the ‘normal’ to come – the warming atmosphere holds more moisture, the warming seas and oceans fuel more powerful cyclones in the future. It won’t be a sustainable area for human habitation, time to start relocating the coming ‘climate refugees’.