Heavy Rains, Flash floods hit Australian city
Pastor Dale Morgan
Heavy Rains, Flash floods hit Australian city*
December 12, 2007 08:36pm
Article from: AAP
FLASH flooding cut roads southwest of Brisbane this afternoon when
storms battered Queensland's southeast.
A Goodna property was inundated by floodwaters, and at nearby Wacol, the
Bureau of Meteorology recorded 53mm of rain in 30 minutes.
The bureau this afternoon issued a severe thunderstorm warning for the
region, after the radar detected intense storm cells west of Brisbane.
They were forecast to deluge the Brisbane CBD, but the predicted heavy
rainfall, flash flooding and damaging winds were confined mainly to the
city's southwest.
Ipswich councillor Paul Tully said he was on the Ipswich Motorway when
the downpour began around 3.30pm (AEST).
"Traffic slowed down to about 10km/h,'' he said.
"Visibility at the height of the storm was about 100m and it was just
coming down in sheets, just belting down.''
Mr Tully this afternoon assisted one Goodna resident, whose property was
inundated.
A number of nearby streets were cut, in the worst flash flooding Mr
Tully had seen in Goodna in 30 years.
"Within about 45 minutes the roads were cut and it was all up and gone
in the space of three hours,'' he said.
"It caught everyone off guard.''
Bureau of Meteorology senior forecaster Geoff Doueal said the storms
were set to continue until around midnight.
He said a slow-moving storm was approaching Brisbane from the south.
An Emergency Management Queensland spokeswoman said crews were called to
only one property with severe damage, a home at Goodna where a tree
branch smashed through the roof.
At the height of the storm, Energex had around 4000 customers without
power, mainly in the Ipswich and Goodna area.