IPSWICH residents breathed a sigh of relief over the weekend as the city dodged the worst of the severe weather system that lashed much of South East Queensland with heavy rain, damaging winds, and flash flooding.
While nearby regions – including the Redlands, Brisbane, the Gold Coast, and the Sunshine Coast – copped a drenching, Ipswich escaped largely unscathed, with lower rainfall recorded and mostly only gusty winds reported.
The Bureau of Meteorology had issued severe weather warnings, with other areas recording more than 150mm of rain in the 24-hour period across Sunday and Monday morning.
In the Redlands, strong winds brought down trees and powerlines, delivering up to 500m of rain, while parts of the Gold Coast saw streets turn into rivers as flash flooding hit low-lying areas.
Ipswich, however, managed to avoid the worst of the storm,with most of the damage coming post Ex Tropical Cyclone Alfred, with SES crews receiving more than 350 call-outs across Ipswich, with local roads cut off and 89 traffic alerts in place on Tuesday morning.
To cope with the aftermath, one of three refuge centres was upgraded to an evacuation centre in the Ipswich Showgrounds at 5pm on Monday afternoon.
The Bremer River broke its banks on Monday afternoon before peaking at 11.57m by midnight.
In comparison, in 2022 the river rose to 16.72m and in 2011 it hit 19.4m.
Ipswich Mayor Teresa Harding said the flood event could have been considerably more destructive, despite 30 properties thought to be flooded.
“There’s families whose homes were flooded and businesses flooded but it could have been much, much worse,” Cr Harding said.
Local Disaster Management Group Chair Councillor Andrew Antoniolli told Local Ipswich News that he had supreme confidence that whatever was thrown at its residents, the city would be ready.
“The door-knocking coordination was the difference in level of preparedness for us,” Cr Antoniolli said.
“We could not have asked for a better team led by Superintendent Kylie Rigg along with Senior Sergeant Kerry Olsen and Inspector Leon Marshall.
“The QPS are obviously the lead agency in a disaster, but the way they worked alongside the District Disaster Coordinator and Local Disaster Coordinator was the real difference in this effort.”
Monday night saw an SES swift water rescue at Walloon and 20 people spending the night at the Showgrounds Evacuation Centre, with only a handful of properties impacted.
“We really had two flooding events this time around, the Bundamba Creek event and the Bremer Riverine flooding on Monday night,” Cr Antoniolli said.
“We had better lead-in time some would suggest this time around, but our biggest challenge was the emergency alert system.
“Because of the widespread disaster across South East Queensland, the capacity of the alert system is limited and came across as a bigger risk than the doorknocking effort.
“Those residents who were doorknocked had a greater appreciation as they felt that they had not been forgotten.”
