THE SQUIZ
A disaster is unfolding in Queensland and NSW’s far north coast after the region received almost half its usual annual rainfall over the weekend. More than 500mm of rain was recorded on Saturday and Sunday – and Brissie usually receives around 1200mm a year. Gympie and parts of the Sunshine Coast have also received more than 600mm since the middle of last week. Six people have died in the resulting floods, and 1,400 Brisbane homes and 500 Gympie homes have been inundated so far. Across the region, almost 1,000 schools are closed today, along with more than 1,000 roads – although, in some areas, there was no choice…

TALK ME THROUGH THE FLOODS…
In downtown Brissie, the Brisbane River peaked at 3.1m yesterday morning – that’s below the 4.46m level reached during the disastrous 2011 floods. But since then, a ‘rain bomb’ has dropped even more of the wet stuff, so the river is expected to peak at around 4m at 7am this morning. About 180km north in Gympie, the Mary River exceeded 23m yesterday morning, surpassing the 1999 flood, which got to 21.95m. Flash-flooding alerts were issued across the region and down to the Gold Coast as authorities pleaded with residents to stay home/off the roads. And across the border in NSW, heavy rain overnight has raised evacuation and major flood warnings for Lismore, Mullumbimby, and communities along the Clarence and Tweed rivers. Flooding there is expected into this week as water from Queensland heads south.

WASN’T BRISSIE MADE FLOOD-PROOF AFTER THE 2011 DISASTER?
No. Brisbane is situated along a river and there is a lot of housing in low-lying areas – it can’t be made flood-proof. You might be thinking of the debate following the 2011 floods and the criticism of the management of the Wivenhoe Dam – the source of half of Brissie’s drinking water and the largest dam in southeast Queensland. In 2011, it was found that releases from Wivenhoe contributed to the flooding that inundated 28,000 homes in the city. Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk yesterday said improvements to the dam and its management mean it’s not the same situation. Last night, Wivenhoe reached 180% capacity, up from 59% on Thursday. However, officials say more than half of its flood storage capacity is still available.