An extraordinary flood

I know quite a few of you have seen footage of the extraordinary flooding in Hervey Bay over the weekend. A number of people have asked after our welfare (thank you, we appreciate that) so I thought I’d better let you know how it went for us. You’ll find more about it here on Channel 9 news.

The wait for Cyclone Alfred to arrive was fraught for us as it was for everyone from about Rockhampton down to Brisbane. Cyclones usually hang about in the tropics but this one came south. As it drifted down the Queensland coast with menace, the Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) tried to work out where (if at all) it would make landfall. In the early days they were confident it would bugger off and visit New Zealand. But as the days went past it became more and more likely that some Queensland town would cop a pounding.

Back in 2009 we had only lived here for a couple of years and Cyclone Wanda, a monster category 5 storm, bore down on the Wide Bay between Bundaberg and Sandy Cape on K’Gari. In other words, straight at Hervey Bay. We did all the storm prep, cleaned up the yard, taped up the windows – and the real locals grinned and said, ‘it’ll go around the tip of K’Gari’. Which is what it did.

In 2025, Alfred went past the tip of K’Gari, well out to sea – and then did a handbrake turn to the right and aimed itself at the Sunshine Coast, Brisbane, and the Gold Coast. We were out of the firing line. I don’t mind admitting we heaved a huge sigh of relief. There was always the risk of heavy rain after landfall but the BOM told us not to worry and lifted storm warnings for our part of the coast. It was predicted that Alfred would cross the coast and head south – which, let’s be fair, is typical for a cyclone since it spins clockwise.

Our forecast for the week beginning Saturday 8^th March was for maybe a 20% chance of 10-20mm of rain. I was even a bit disappointed. I would have liked a bit of rain. In fact, in my last blog (published Saturday 8th March) I said “Please note, the storm is a looong way south of us. We might get a bit of rain later but it’s bright and sunny with a bit of breeze. We’re fine.” Famous last words.

The thing is Alfred, being a cyclone, said, ‘up yours’ and did something different.

The rain woke me at about 4am on Sunday morning. It was bucketing down, hammering on the roof, accompanied by light and sound effects. Sleep was off the agenda. I watched the water creeping (galloping) up the rain gauge. It takes 150mm with a gap at the top which would hold another 20mm before it overflowed. The rain was relentless. There was a wind, but nowhere near gale force.

I grabbed a brolly and waded out to the rain gauge at about 6am because it was full, I estimated 160mm (that’s over 6 inches). We take a reading at 9am and by that time it had added another 70mm – so 230mm in 5 hours and it was still raining.

Yes, the yard was wet. Water edged onto the lower part of the patio but was no risk of flowing into the house. The ground is sandy here and we’re higher up than the sea front, so it all drained relatively quickly. We never lost power and the only part of our place that flooded was Pete’s shed floor. That’s the building in the picture below.

This picture was taken in December. This time all the pavers were underwater but it never reached the top of the edging along the beds.

This was taken on the 9th. This very unhappy cane toad is sitting next to the edging.

The water flows down from the shed, around the patio and down to the street.

The rain was over by early afternoon. We needed some milk so we went off at about 4pm. The centres of the roads were already dry, with puddles in the gutters and drains. Further down towards the bay there was evidence of flooding, especially in areas next to wetlands and drains. In one place caravans stood in water halfway up their wheels. We came across one fallen tree and quite a lot of smaller twigs and branches along the Esplanade which runs parallel to the beach (and is more exposed to winds.) Fortunately, the storm hit at low tide, otherwise the sea could well have been blown over the sea wall and the damage would have been much worse. That has happened before.

As you know, people had to be rescued from houses and cars but we only came across one road closure. All the shops were closed. Our usual Aldi had a sign saying the closure was due to water damage. Quite a few of the houses and businesses in the streets near the beach suffered power failures and underground carparks were flooded. People will have suffered significant losses.

Some people are pointing fingers at BOM. But cyclones are contrary, unpredictable beasts. That’s life.