In northern Queensland, residents are grappling with an unexpected flood emergency following a severe overnight downpour that forced many to abandon their homes.

The Etheridge Shire Council has issued an urgent flash flooding warning for the entire area of Einasleigh, situated approximately 380 kilometers northwest of Townsville, urging residents to evacuate immediately.

The region witnessed an astonishing 220 millimeters of rainfall in the Copperfield River catchment overnight, leading to the sudden flooding.

Harry Clark, a senior meteorologist at the Bureau of Meteorology, noted that several locations experienced “some very extreme totals” of rainfall.

“Indeed, we have seen record-breaking figures for January in several areas,” Clark stated.

He further explained, “The resulting flooding has been incredibly swift in certain areas.”

Oak Park Race Club’s recorded almost 300 millimetres in 48 hours.

“A lot of this rainfall’s been driven by thunderstorms and that weak tropical low 18U that we’ve been monitoring for a while,” Clark said.

Einasleigh resident Chelsea Mosch told 9News the township has “pretty much gone under”.

“It’s gone through all the houses and the pub,” she said.

Mosch lives on a cattle station north of the town where the river is swelling a metre every hour.

“It’s pretty scary. We’re just packing up everything now to get to higher ground,” she said.

Coastal communities were also clipped by the system.

“Roughly between Babinda and Townsville saw a widespread 50 millimetres to 150 millimetres,” Clark said.

Two teenage boys were left high and dry in fast-moving water on Townsville’s Ross River after a fishing expedition gone wrong.

Authorities were called in to retrieve the pair.

“We received reports of two young persons stranded on Rocks at Aplin Weir, and obviously the currents were quite strong,” Townsville Police Acting Senior Sergeant Terry Phillips said.

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