Thread: Townsville in crisis. 8.30 is the danger time.

Originally Posted by Eevo

why not. townville floods reasonably often.
granted this is one of the worst but high rainfall and floods are common up there.

Fair comment Eevo but upwards of a metre of rain in 3 days is pretty unusual even up here🙄

Originally Posted by harro

Fair comment Eevo but upwards of a metre of rain in 3 days is pretty unusual even up here🙄

One of the hamlets north of Townsville has had 4 metres of rain in 7 days. Think about this. An average of 1" of rain every hour for a week. Ingham had 220 mls of rain overnight sat/sun. This is a goodly bit more than fell in normal good wet seasons. Bluewater had over 200 mls of rain in three hours a couple of days ago and 3650 for the week.

Originally Posted by harro

Hmmm, not every day that a dam registers 200% full and needs the floodgates fully opened into an already flooded area.
A Q100 event that will probably rewrite the record books.

Ironically Townsville is quite often referred to a ‘Mt Isa by the sea’ locally because it is so dry compared to most other coastal towns up here.

Yes, Townsville is in a dry patch. That is why sugar is not grown there.

Record rainfall for Townsville. This is like a few years ago when Wivenhoe dam was overtopping and they had to flood Brisbane or it could have collapsed.

You will note that most of the old houses in Townsville are high up on stumps, and probably have no water inside. Many people over the years have filled in the underneath and are now finding out why the houses were built on stumps. ( along with the coolness before air con)

My mother's house in East Brisbane was built in 1926 on stumps at the front about 10 ft high. In 1974 the water came to about 1 foot under the floor, but she didn't have to evacuate. The bloke who bought the hose dolled it up and filled in under the house. He got about 1 metre of water through it in the most recent floods. It is worth over a million now but floods!

It beggars belief why concils allowed slab houses in these areas, that changed a minor inconvenience to a lot of drama and heartbreak. Exactly the same happened in Emerald a few years ago.
Regards Philip A

Originally Posted by PhilipA

It beggars belief why concils allowed slab houses in these areas,

im guessing slab built houses are stronger in the cyclone?

Originally Posted by Eevo

im guessing slab built houses are stronger in the cyclone?

No, slabbies are built because they are cheap. Don't even have solid slabs these days but waffle slabs with lumps of polystyrene used to create voids which otherwise would have to be filled with concrete. brick veneer slabbies, tin or pine frames, and concrete tiles. Cheap and nasty. The epitome of the term "jerry built".

Originally Posted by harro

Hmmm, not every day that a dam registers 200% full and needs the floodgates fully opened into an already flooded area.
A Q100 event that will probably rewrite the record books.

Ironically Townsville is quite often referred to a ‘Mt Isa by the sea’ locally because it is so dry compared to most other coastal towns up here.

Brownsville.