Severe flooding is hitting parts of north-east Queensland this morning, with Townsville City Council issuing a 'prepare to leave' emergency warning for low lying areas. Residents from Mutarnee to Cungulla are being urged to prepare for evacuation, with the chance of more than a metre of rainfall over the weekend, triggering potentially life-threatening flooding.
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TVTranscript
00:00It's certainly been a busy time for emergency services across North Queensland.
00:07The SES has attended more than 300 jobs across the region, mainly sandbagging and fixing
00:14roofs.
00:15Townsville has recorded 350 millimetres of rain since 9am yesterday and there's more
00:22to come.
00:23A severe weather warning is in place for a large area across the north.
00:26An emergency alert has been issued for South Johnston and Merillion near Innisfail due
00:31to flooding concerns.
00:33Police have issued a prepare to leave warning for residents in low-lying areas of Townsville.
00:38Authorities say they'll be door-knocking thousands of residents in affected areas advising them
00:43of the flooding risk.
00:44The Bureau says this is all being caused by a tropical low.
00:48Here's what they had to say.
00:49A particular concern is from around the Tully area through Innisfail, Cardwell and down
00:54towards the Townsville area where we could see that heavily and locally intense rainfall.
01:00We've also got major flood warnings current for the South Johnston River, for the Herbert
01:05River as well as for the Ross River and the Bole River in the Townsville area.
01:09Now overnight yesterday and overnight we saw widespread falls of 200 to 150 I should say
01:15to 250 millimetres with a few falls in excess of 300 millimetres around the Townsville area
01:21and we're likely to see those kind of numbers again today and again on Sunday and possibly
01:26again on Monday as well.
01:28Queensland's Premier David Crisafulli has also addressed the media.
01:32There's some door-knocking underway at the moment in some of the low-lying areas around
01:36both South Johnston and Merillion, they're small communities near Innisfail, but around
01:40Townsville, some of the lower-lying suburbs, particularly closer to the city, there'll
01:44be some evacuations and some door-knocking that's underway at the moment and my message
01:50is if that advice comes to you, please take heed of it.
01:53It is the wet season but authorities are asking residents to take this seriously, have your
01:59emergency kits ready and remember the golden rule, if it's flooded, forget it, don't drive
02:04through floodwaters.