2010 Flooding on a property on the intersection of Woodbury & Bungundarra Roads

The last 2 days have seen some huge rainfall figures in the Yeppoon region, with Pacific Heights & Bungundarra receiving over 220mm. Most areas within 30km of Yeppoon (including Byfield) have received at least 90mm.

Beach erosion due to high tides and runoff has occurred in some areas, although Kemp Beach has been hit the hardest. Access to Kemp Beach by its southern entrance and carpark is limited, the easiest access is from the northern end at Rosslyn Bay.

I hope to have photos of the erosion up by next weekend.

Flooding has effected road closures in various low spots around Yeppoon & Gracemere, below is a list current as of 5PM today (1st February 2010). Not mentioned in the list is the closure of the two lower lanes on Farnborough Road near the Bluff. This post will be updated tomorrow with reopened roads, etc.

Yeppoon Road Closures

• Byfield Road at Stoney Creek and at Merrivale
• Coorooman Creek Road at Coorooman Creek
• Daly Creek Road, Bundgundarra
• Old Byfield Road at Limestone Creek (Mt Rae end)
• Barmaryee Road
• Bungundarra Road at Daly Creek
• Bangalee Boat Ramp beach access
• Alpis Creek Road

Gracemere Road Closures

• Malch – 9 Mile Road
• Alton Downs – 9 Mile Road
• Fairybower Road
• Aermby Road
• Capricorn Street
• Middle Road
• Macquarie Road
• Johnson Road
• Bajool road 1/2 covered with water – may also be cut very soon at Raglan and Marmor

As of the latest BOM Tracking Map, ex-Tropical Cyclone Hamish has been downgraded to a Tropical Low. Currently the low is moving up the coast again (almost doubling back on its tracks) in a north west direction. Dangerous weather is expected for the Capricorn Coast (RRC Media Release).

Tropical Cyclone Hamish from bom.gov.au.
View a timelapse animation of Cyclone Hamish.

The BOM has stopped issuing track maps.

Rising Creeks by Jylan Wynne

From 9am on Tuesday morning to 9am on Wednesday morning, Yeppoon and surrounding districts had over 80.6mm, or 3.1 inches of rain. This is enough to flush out all the creeks and leave a lot of water lying around on the ground, but so far there has been no major flooding like in February 2008.

The Capricornia district forecast from the Bureau of Meteorology has this to say about Wednesday and the days ahead:

CAPRICORNIA DISTRICT

Outlook for Wednseday: Rain areas. Isolated thunderstorms. Moderate to heavy falls possible. Moderate
NW to NE winds, shifting W to SW inland during the day.

Outlook for Thursday: Scattered coastal showers, more isolated inland.

Outlook for Friday: Scattered coastal showers, isolated inland. Late rain.

YeppoonInfo.com will keep you updated on any weather developments in the area.

This shows the extent of the floodwaters that came into our paddock, as well as our neighbours paddock.

The corner of the road where the floodwater was running over. You can see how the water had uprooted some of the grass and rolled it back. The view in the photo above is just to the left of this.

The damage caused by the floodwater to the edge of the road. It has now been repaired with some concrete. Don’t forget that this road will soon be replaced by the new one, so it isn’t the most tidy repair .

The floodwaters down at the big new bridge. The deepest point in there would be over my head, and flowing very strongly.

Looking on the other side of the creek, over the old bridge, you can see just how much water there was flowing through there.

This is amazing. Have a look at the grass on the other side. See how high the water has been? That’s right, the little bridge was actually submerged under the creek! It probably only lasted an hour or less like that however, because as soon as the rain stops the creek starts going down.

The roadworkers are in the photo because something from the new bridge had been pushed off by the floodwaters and hit the old bridge. They were then checking it for structural damage. None was found, though.

This is the worst-hit area around our place. Located about 3km away from us, this flooding probably extended for 500 metres or more. The deepest place on that road would be around 2 metres. While I was there locals kept driving up and taking photos of the flooding.

[tags]adelaide park, woodbury, bungundarra, rain, bridge, creek, water, flooding, flood[/tags]

The title says it all. Currently we are having some very heavy rain as a result of a tropical low that is moving down the coast. Heaps of roads are closed, including the one on our corner. So now we are basically unable to drive into Yeppoon. About half an hour ago I put my swimmers on and went outside to look at the flooding. What I saw amazed me, because this is the first time in my life I’ve seen flooding personally.

I had previously prepared some alternative pictures for this, but that was yesterday before we got the real flooding. So I dumped those pics and I am using the photos that I took half and hour ago. They reflect what is happening here right now. Sorry for the blurriness of some, I had to wrap the camera in a bag to protect it from the rain. BTW a local who was just outside our driveway waiting to get through said that this area hadn’t had flooding like this for 17 years!

The road at our corner is currently closed, although 4wd are able to get through. I will try to take some more pictures, maybe one down at the big bridge when I can get through. That would be really thundering right now!

A general overview of the corner.

The water thundering into our back paddock and then into the neighbours.

Looking up north in the opposite direction. The water in this picture is only about shin height.

A closeup of the water flooding over the enbankment.

This view shows how some of the shelters along the Fitzroy river that are over halfway submerged.

These trees are normally high and dry with a spare, but the mighty Fitzroy River is conquering them .

A very wet sign.

This marker shows the different levels that the Fitzroy has reached over the years. It will be interesting to see if they mark 2008 on there.

Right next to the river there are roads leading to the carparks and picnic areas. This particular one is blocked off.