The Lockyer Valley west of Brisbane is experiencing floodwaters in some areas surpassing the levels seen in the devastating 2011 floods, as the ACT Government has sent mapping specialists to help the Red Cross deal with emergencies.
The Australian newspaper has reported that Lockyer Valley west of Brisbane is experiencing floodwaters in some areas surpassing the levels seen in the devastating 2011 floods.
Mayor Steve Jones is reported as saying that waters have already risen one metre higher at Glenore Grove and about three metres higher in Tent Hill Creek than they were two years ago.
Mr Jones said authorities were trying to get supplies to residents where they could and were surveying the region by helicopter to make sure people weren’t in any immediate danger.
“There’s a lot of damage. There’s broken water mains, broken sewer mains broken, damaged roads – it’s difficult to get around,” he said.
Responding to the flood emergency, ACT mapping experts are heading to Queensland to assist the Red Cross in assessing the needs of affected residents.
Canberra Times reports that a three-person team of volunteers from ACT Emergency Services Agency MAPS headed to Queensland on Sunday night, following a call for assistance from Red Cross Queensland.
Chief officer of the ACT Rural Fire Service Andrew Stark has also been sent to Queensland to render assistance.
ACT Emergency Services commissioner Dominic Lane told the paper that in situations like those found in Queensland, mapping specialists would usually help by mapping where residents were affected by flooding, working out where roads were closed and surveying and plotting damage.
”They’re a very dedicated team, and they’re very experienced and they’re able to provide a lot of support to the Queensland community,” he said.
The mapping team will spend five days volunteering, working out of the state command centre in Brisbane.
The ACT State Emergency Service is also on standby to send rescue and cleanup crews to Queensland and northern NSW.
ACT State Emergency Service chief officer Tony Graham told the Canberra Times he made the offer to NSW and Queensland authorities on Monday morning, but had not discussed specifically how many people might be sent.
“We can have crews on the ground attending to any storms, flooding – the very types of jobs we have here. We’ve got some flood boat crews that we could send north if needed, we’ve got incident management people, liaison people, media people,” Mr Graham said.
ACT Rural Fire Sevice chief Andrew Stark is also in Queensland as part of a federal emergency management assistance team.
