The caravan park in the central Queensland township of Sapphire has been evacuated after a severe storm dumped more than 200 millimetres of rain early this morning.
Central Highlands Mayor Kerry Hayes said it was a serious situation.
“As far as we know, those people that are in any harm’s way, have moved to higher ground or moved to the SES shed,” he told the ABC. “The difficulty is that the Gemfields is a very strong tourist attraction area and there may be tourists there that are not familiar with it.”
Ewan Letts runs the van park and said he moved visitors out before sunlight.
“We only had about seven vans in the park that we were able to evacuate safely,” he told the ABC. “It is not as big an event as we’ve had in the past as in 2011, but still of some concern … the bridge is still definitely well under water.”
Disaster co-ordinator for the Central Highlands Regional Council Glenn Bell said the SES had already rescued a ‘number of people’.
A person was rescued from the top of their car by another local on Rubyvale Road, about five kilometres from the township.
“The SES has been out and had to assist people from the roof of their houses,” Mr Bell told the ABC. “We’ve had a number of people stranded in floodwaters who have also had to be rescued … that all has been undertaken successfully at this stage.”
He said once the floodwaters had receded, teams would be sent into the area to understand the damage that has occurred and what assistance is needed.
a very good time to fossick for gems after the water goes down
Wow good tip 😀