Town gets two years’ worth of water in 48 hours
A SOUTHERN Queensland town has had two years worth of drinking water flow into its dam after downpours across the state.
The Gold and Sunshine coasts were among the hardest-hit regions over the past three days, with some drenched by more than 200mm of rain in just 24 hours.
Coolangatta yesterday received the highest daily rainfall in the state at 200.6mm, followed by Elbow Valley near Warwick at 121mm.
Residents of Warwick, southwest of Brisbane, now have some respite from the crippling drought in the region after dam levels nearly doubled overnight in Leslie Dam, which supplies water to the town and surrounding communities, rising from 7.66 per cent to 12.64 per cent between Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning, according to SunWater.
Southern Downs Mayor Tracy Dobie said as much as two years worth of drinking water had flowed into Leslie Dam.
"We have had almost as much rain in January and February as we had in all of 2019," she said.
The community of Stanthorpe near the NSW border also received much-needed rain. The community officially ran out of drinking water in January, needing to truck water from Connolly Dam 60km to the town's north.
Ms Dobie said Connolly Dam received good rain but the town's main supply, Storm King Dam, did not receive enough to halt water trucking.
"We got one month of water into Storm King Dam, but we are looking at needing six months worth of rain to stop the trucking," she said.
Elsewhere, Saturday saw Rolleston Airport hit with 149.6mm while Eumundi on Friday was pelted with more than 130mm of rain, followed by Clontarf with 117mm.
It comes as more than 900 calls were made to the State Emergency Service across the state for roof damage and water inundation as the Bureau of Meteorology put several flood watches in place.
The Bureau of Meteorology is forecasting more storms across the southeast today.
"There's a continuation of showers and thunderstorms tending to be a little more isolated as we head further into the week - there is a potential for severe thunderstorms and with that heavy falls," BOM forecaster Peter Markworth said.
"With the saturated soil, particularly in the southeast, makes it even more susceptible to flash flooding than other parts of the year."
HIGHEST DAILY RAINFALL FOR QUEENSLAND FEBRUARY 8 SATURDAY
149.6 Rolleston Airport
86.0 Namarah
78.0 Southwood
69.2 Scherger RAAF
68.4 Wyaga TM
60.0 Bramwell
56.6 Langley TM
56.0 Fenton TM
55.0 Cape Moreton Lighthouse
053.2 Lady Elliot Island
HIGHEST DAILY RAINFALL FOR QUEENSLAND FEBRUARY 9 SUNDAY
200.6 Coolangatta
121.0 Elbow Valley Alert
115.2 Oakey Aero
113.6 Langley TM
111.0 Pratten Condamine River
110.0 Warwick (Scots College) TM
106.0 Yangan Alert
104.8 Warwick
103.6 Gold Coast Seaway
103.0 Burleigh Waters Alert
