Flooding in Australia has inflicted “incredible” devastation on communities across northern Queensland, the state’s premier has said, even though conditions are easing faster than predicted.
Thousands of residents who evacuated from their homes are set to return on Tuesday but it is feared hundreds of properties and businesses have been inundated.
“It’s a disaster that’s going to test the resolve of people,” Premier David Crisafulli told the ABC.
Parts of the region have been battered by nearly 2m (6.5 ft) of rain since Saturday, prompting ongoing flood warnings and blackouts, but the premier said weather conditions had been “really kind” in recent hours.
Communities along three major rivers were nonetheless urged to remain vigilant, as major flood warnings remained in place.
In Townsville, locals woke on Tuesday to grey skies and drizzle, and the news that predicted flooding levels had not materialised there. It was a stark contrast to the intense downpours which have battered the region over the past few days.
Authorities said the easing conditions meant that people who had previously been advised to leave six Townsville suburbs could now go home.
“We believe that the danger has passed,” Townsville Local Disaster Management Group chair Andrew Robinson told media.
Pointing to earlier forecasts which had suggested up to 2,000 Townsville homes could have faced flood risks, Crisafulli said that “the city had dodged a bullet”.
On Monday night, local residents told the BBC they were “on a knife edge” as they waited to see whether their houses would survive.
But further north in the state, power outages and damaged roads have made it difficult to assess the full extent of the destruction in towns such as Ingham and Cardwell.
Crisafulli said early reports suggested the damage was “quite frankly incredible”.
“There are people who have been inundated at home, in their businesses and in their farms,” he told reporters on Tuesday.
On Sunday, a 63-year-old woman died when a State Emergency Service (SES) dinghy capsized during a rescue attempt.
More than 8,000 properties remain without power, according to the state’s energy provider, and the partial collapse of a critical highway continues to hinder efforts to assist some of the hardest-hit areas.
Crisafulli said the recovery effort would “take some time” and that the priority in the coming hours would be to work with the army to get power generators to isolated communities and “bring them back online”.
He added that thanks to authorities, the hospital in Ingham was up and running again, as was a supermarket and a petrol station.
Located in the tropics, north Queensland is vulnerable to destructive cyclones, storms, and flooding.
But climate scientists have warned that warmer oceans and a hotter planet are creating the conditions for more intense and frequent extreme rainfall events.
In 2019, a monsoon produced extreme rainfall for almost two weeks across the region, which caused flooding in Townsville and several coastal communities.
