Dam to hit 90%, more flood peaks | Emerald News | Local News in Emerald

ROLLESTON FLOOD: Comet RIver and flood plains south of Rolleston.

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WEEKEND rain around Rolleston was unrelenting, with three further flood peaks predicted to hit the town this week.

Livestock losses are only now being tallied by property owners and food and fuel drops to isolated properties have begun.

The Carnarvon Highway from Rolleston to Injune will be cut possibly for the remainder of the week, as will the Dawson Highway to Springsure.

Rolleston’s Senior Constable Andrew Donohue said the Comet River surged again on Monday to a height of 5.25m, above 2008 levels.

But Carnarvon Creek at Rewan is engorged by three successive storms on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

“After the Saturday night storm it went from 1.1m to 2.3m and dropped down again, and with the storm that went through on Sunday night, it went from 1.2m to 4.9m in one hour,” said Snr Const Donohue.

“The (Comet) river starts to drop a little bit then we get another peak, then it drops, and rises some more.

“It just means we’re going to be cut off from Springsure and Injune for another week.”

In hot and humid conditions, power was cut to the town for eight hours on Saturday when a storm dumped 21mm.

Only kilometres to the west, Lynora Downs received 100mm from the same weather system.

Weekend falls of more than 100mm at Mantuan Down have begun to flow into Fairbairn Dam headwaters, with minor flooding at Craigmore in coming days.

As of 6am yesterday, the dam was sitting at 83.5 per cent of capacity; a rise of 6.5 per cent since Friday to 1,059,393 mega litres.

A SunWater spokesman said inflow had slowed to 8000ML before the next wave of water, estimated to be 100,000ML, comes through.

The predicted capacity of the Fairbairn by Friday is 90 per cent.

The Bureau of Meteorology is forecasting minor flooding for the Nogoa River, and minor to moderate flooding on the Mackenzie River this week.

Major flooding continues along the Comet River from Rolleston to The Lake, and further flooding is expected from The Lake to Comet Weir.