Lucky escape for boy sucked through flooded storm drain
A teenager is lucky to be alive after being sucked into a drain by floodwaters as rain-hit Queensland braces for more wet weather.
The 15-year-old boy was pulled into a stormwater drain in far north Queensland, prompting a warning from authorities with showers set to continue.
Police on Thursday released footage of an officer arriving moments after the teen went missing in Mareeba, as concerned children stood by the flooded drain.
The boy luckily re-emerged a few streets away with cuts and grazes.
The incident on Tuesday has prompted a plea for people to stay away from floodwaters and not drive through submerged roads.
“We were lucky on that occasion that that boy came out with some scratches and bruises,” State Disaster Coordinator Shane Chelepy said on Thursday.
“We do not want to see bad outcomes from kids playing in floodwaters — you just do not know what is under that water.”
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He said many people had already been rescued from floodwaters, with police releasing video of passengers in submerged cars in Goldsborough in the far north.
“We are only early in the season and we have already seen risky behaviour being undertaken with people driving through floodwaters,” Chelepy said.
“It does not matter how big your car is, or how equipped it is to handle four-wheel-drive conditions, it will not save you if you can’t see what is underneath the water and the road gives out from underneath you.”
The state’s north is next in the firing line as residents prepare for torrential downpours with a storm system set to form off the coast.
The Bureau of Meteorology warns a trough off the coast of Townsville will drift north from Thursday and linger for days.
A tropical low is also forming in the far north near Weipa and should move south down the coast near Townsville over the weekend.
The bureau said it was unlikely the tropical low would develop into the season’s first cyclone, currently a less than 5 per cent chance.
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Daily rainfall totals up to 60 millimetres are forecast for the north on Thursday and up to 80 millimetres on Friday, with heavier localised falls of up to 200 millimetres predicted.
“Localised river level rises and flash flooding are likely within the areas of heaviest rainfall, with isolated minor riverine flooding possible,” the bureau said.
Further south, residents await floodwaters to subside after being asked to prepare to evacuate in the Western Downs and South Burnett, west of Brisbane.
A major flood warning was issued for downstream of the Logan River at Beaudesert, which is subsiding but had been expected to reach 8.3 metres on Thursday.
It follows days of heavy rain across south-east Queensland that caused flooding, power outages and affected the Australia-India cricket Test at the Gabba.
An earlier warning for the South Burnett Regional Council area was cancelled on Thursday, as flood waters receded.
The State Emergency Service received 145 calls for help in the last 24 hours, with 25 of those in Brisbane and another 23 further north in the Moreton Bay region.
The SES said the majority were for sandbagging and tarping with 10 per cent for felled trees.
However, weather conditions are forecast to ease in the south-east on Thursday, as a south-easterly surge from NSW pushes north.
“That means showers will start clearing from the south-eastern areas while continuing in parts further to the north,” the Bureau of Meteorology’s Miriam Bradbury said.
– with AAP
