Floodwaters are rising for the third day across parts of north Queensland, with some pockets recording more than a metre of rain since Saturday.
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00:00A couple of the facts that we learned from that media conference just within the last
00:05half hour, Roz, 11 more swift water rescues overnight, a detail about that lady who died
00:13in Ingham when the SES boat flipped, she was in her 60s.
00:20One bit of positive news from that media conference was the Bureau saying that this system does
00:25seem to be easing a little in the context of things.
00:29Yesterday they were talking about rainfall totals expected in around up to 600 millimetres.
00:37Today they're talking about rainfall totals up to 500.
00:42As much as that sounds, it's not much of a gain.
00:46It's very welcome news for people here in Townsville that this relentless rain might
00:52start to ease and it does feel like that here today.
00:57There have been spots where there has been no rain at all and it's just coming down
01:02lightly at the moment.
01:04There is concern that there will be more bands of rain come through over the coming 24 hours
01:09that could lead to rainfall totals up to 500 mils, but there's a sense that things are
01:16getting better.
01:17But the Ross River that runs through Townsville, the water is still pumping through there,
01:23there's still plenty of rain falling, 200 mils in the last 24 hours.
01:27And those areas that they're describing as the black zones, people are still out of those
01:34black zones.
01:35They were evacuated, they were told to get out by midday yesterday and authorities are
01:39urging them to stay away because it is still not safe to go back.
01:44We were down near one of those black zones a little earlier today and the level of the
01:48river was actually, it was kind of about the same as it was yesterday.
01:52Their dam for the Ross River is about 19km upstream and they are managing the releases
01:58from that effectively so far so that the river hasn't broken its banks near some of the suburbs
02:06we were near this morning at least.
02:08So hopefully that will continue to be the case.
02:12But there is ongoing concern that there could be 1,700 homes in those suburbs with water
02:17up over the floorboards.
02:19So it's raining there, albeit lightly there now, Joe, you've got a good vantage point
02:24from where you are, from the look of it.
02:26Can you show us what it's like?
02:28Yeah, well we could see, like 5 or 10, half an hour ago we could see over to Magnetic
02:36Island but that view has disappeared for the moment.
02:40And that's where those kind of the rain bands have been coming in from, generally from the
02:45nor-nor-east and it's, yeah, it really has been relentless.
02:50North Queensland is used to the heavy rain but it's just been so persistent that it's
02:56kind of, yeah, it's caught people off guard in terms of just how long it's gone on for
03:01and how persistent it's been.
03:04What's happening with other communities, you're there in Townsville, what's the situation
03:07elsewhere?
03:08Yeah, well that's another thing that we heard from that media conference.
03:12The authority's talking about the damage that there's been in Cardwell, there is water
03:17through homes there in Cardwell, that's where there's been swift water rescues.
03:21Just over the range in Ingham, there are 6,000 people now without power.
03:26It's still not clear exactly how many homes have water through them there, but the Premier
03:32in that media conference, Dave Chrisfully, was saying it's extensive and the damage to
03:36the agricultural area there around Ingham, extensive cane farming area, says that damage
03:42will be immense.
03:43Also confirmation in that media conference that homes in Blue Water on Townsville Northern
03:50Fringe, that there have been homes with water through them there.
03:54And there's also flooding down at Garoo, so it's, yeah, this system has affected such
03:59a broad range of this North Queensland coast and it's not over yet.