1.
AERIAL V Flood water over Warwck (6 shots)
0.22

2.
SV Beaudesert with cars and trucks driving through flood waters at Jimboomba bridge (4 shots)
0.50

3.
GV PAN FROM Airport tower TO light planes in floodwater (4 shots)
1.07

4.
GV & SV People and vehicles going through floodwater at Corumban (4 shots)
1.23

5.
CU & GVs Floodwater cascading over Advancetown dam project (7 shoats)
1.58


AERIAL VIEW OF WARWICK: BEAUDESERT WITH CARS AND TRUCKS IN FLOODWATERS: COOLANGATTA AIRPORT: PEOPLE AND CARS GOING THROUGH FLOODWATERS AT CORUMBAN: FLOODWATERS CASCADING OVER ADVANCETOWN DAM.



SACRE: At Warwick the worst flood in living memory, worse even than the disaster of 1893. It came suddenly and hundreds of residents were shocked when daylight revealed the extent of the rising flood. The evacuation started early this morning. Information is extremely hard to get with most lines to Warwick cut or jammed with hundreds of calls. The rain slackened in Warkick this morning the peak is yet to come.



WISEMAN: "South of Brisbane, Beaudesert is cut off with major flooding over the main roads. As flooding built up this morning, creeks and rivers in the area banked back, flooding bridges. Traffic was still able to get through at Jimboomba bridge until just before midday, but the waters were rising rapidly."



SACRE "Coolangatta airport under water. When the control opened at six o'clock this morning the operator found much of the tarmac inundated. There were hurried calls to light plane owners who pushed their aircraft to higher ground. Coolangatta was closed to all aircraft until midmorning when the tide went down and the weather cleared -- temporarily anyway. Nearby, water levels were rising in streets at Corumban. This street borders the world famous bird sanctuary, normally packed with hundreds of cars. Today only the bigger vehicles were game to cross it. This is the latest blow to the Gold Coast, already suffering the depressing aftermath of Cyclone Cavid. The Big Wet is back again".



MCWILLIAM: "Millions of gallons of water an hour are spilling over the partially completed Advancetown dam on the Gold coast. A concrete control section over the main spillway is unfinished so the flood waters have nosher to go but over the dam and down stream. The deluge trapped one heavy construction crane at the top of the spillway. The rain swollen Nerang has boosted the dam level. Today it is three metres higher than it was last week. The Gold Coast City Council is not expecting and local flooding problems to be caused by flood run-off from the dam. In fact they say, even in its unfinished state the dam has lessened the impact of the flooding that would normally occur with so much rain."




Initials BB/2345 MW/JB/BB/0115


TELERECORDING
REPORTERS: HOARD SACRE/JOHN WISEMAN/DES MCWILLIAM
The film is serviced with commentary from Channel 10 reporters, Howard Sacro, John Wiseman and Des McWilliam. A full transcript is provided overleaf.

Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved

Background: Rivers burst their banks and thousands of people were evacuated from their homes as floodwater continued rising on Thursday (12 February) over huge areas of these Australian states.

The floods swept across thousands of square miles of normally arid country after four days of tropical downpours which dumped almost 20 inches (50 cms) of rain on border areas of New South Wales and Queensland.

There were no reported fatalities but government officials estimated that damage to livestock and property would run into millions of dollars.

Emergency controllers in New South Wales, Queensland and South Australia said many evacuated families would not be able to return to their homes for at least a week.

Dozens of small towns and hundreds of isolated families in northern New South Wales and southern Queensland were completely cut off by the rising waters and several were being evacuated by the authorities.

For Queensland's tourist mocca, the Gold Cast, recently hit by Cyclone David, this latest flooding is an even worse blow. The airport at Coolangatia was closed for several hours on Thursday because the tarmac was underwater.

Gold Coast council is thankful their new dam at Advancetown, although unfinished, had lessened the impact the floodwater would have had.