Qld: More wild weather forecast

AAP General News (Australia)
04-02-2009
Qld: More wild weather forecast

By Petrina Berry and Tony Bartlett

BRISBANE, April 2 AAP - Heavy rain and strong winds lashing the southeast Queensland
coast, causing flash floods and bringing down power lines, are expected to shift to the
central Queensland coast on Friday.

Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) forecaster Tony Auden said a trough that was generating
winds of just under 90km/h was moving north.

Sunshine Coast houses and businesses on Thursday afternoon suffered flash floods after
receiving rainfall of more than 100mm in six hours.

All Gold Coast beaches and eight on the Sunshine Coast were closed due to dangerous
surf, after the swell peaked at 10 metres on the Gold Coast, according to Volunteer Marine
Rescue at Point Danger.

Sunshine Coast Regional Council chief lifeguard Heath Collie said the beach closures
would be reassessed on Friday morning.

Tom Wegener, who crafts wooden surfboards at Cooroy near Noosa, says his shaping shed
is under water.

He joked he had plenty of boards on hand if he needed to paddle around the place.

"The rain gauge has overflowed, so I don't know exactly how much we've had," he said.

"Our place is right behind Mt Cooroy, and the weather came over the mountain and just
dumped on us.

"I don't think it would be possible for it to rain any harder."

Mr Auden said southeast Queensland would continue to receive light to moderate showers
during the next four days as the trough shifts to towns between Bundaberg and Gladstone.

More than 5,000 homes lost power on Thursday, and Energex spokesman Danny Donald said
while electricity had been restored to most areas, the worst was still to come.

"We expect there will be power outages throughout the day," Mr Donald said.

SES workers have been busy sandbagging and repairing leaky roofs of nearly 100 houses
across the southeast.

The call-outs were mostly between Caboolture and Bundaberg.

AAP peb/pjo/jl/de

KEYWORD: WIND QLD WRAP

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