Wild storms lash outback town
Pastor Dale Morgan
Wild storms lash outback town*
By Neil Hickey
December 21, 2007 11:55am
Article from: The Courier-Mail
ROADS in and out of a small Balonne Shire town, in the west of
Queensland, are blocked after storms and torrential rain, causing tens
of thousands of dollars damage, hit the area overnight.
The tiny town of St George, 400km west of Toowoomba, faces a massive
clean-up this morning after flooding, and trees and branches were torn
down in a wild storm last night.
Police said the Carnarvon Highway to the north of the town is blocked
after 70mm of rain overnight and this morning, while 60mm of rain closed
the Moonie Highway to the east of the town.
Other roads were severely flooded after most of the rain – between 70mm
and 108mm – fell in 40 minutes last night.
With winds of almost 80km/h, the town was hit by a second storm that
dumped 20mm and some light hail in just 10 minutes several hours later.
The mayor of Balonne Shire, Cr Robert Buchan, a local since 1948, said
it was the worst storm to hit the town in 25 years.
He said there had been damage to homes, shops and roads but most had
escaped largely unscathed.
"There were a lot of trees over cars, we had trees landing on buildings,
damaging the roofs, and water damage in some houses and business," he said.
"It came through so quickly and the drain system couldn’t drain the
water away quickly enough.
"But generally speaking, we’ve got off very well. There were some very
large trees that went over that didn’t hit anything. It’s not that
no-one’s affected but it’s not Cyclone Larry."
SES volunteers were called out to 12 emergencies last night, working
until midnight to provide tarpaulins and sandbags to businesses in the
CBD affected by the rising waters.
Most of them are council employees and were preparing to help clean up
the battered CBD this morning.
"One business had a foot of water come through it, there was some
corrugated iron blowing around the place and roof damage from the
guttering overflowing," said the SES's Andy Christie.
On the plus side, last night’s storm was the climax of a solid month of
rain that has all but eliminated the drought in that area.
Cr Buchan said the Beardmore Dam, once down to just 4 per cent capacity,
was now overflowing and the parched landscape of recent years was now
healthy and green.
Water harvesters are also harvesting water for the first time in years,
he said.
The last great storm to affect the town was in 1982 when about 150mm
fell on a single night.
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