Weather News
Search resumes for good Samaritan swept away in floodwaters in far north Queensland
By Renee Cluff and Patrick Williams, Thursday January 5, 2017 - 13:48 EDT
Family and friends of a far north Queensland man who went missing in floodwaters after trying to warn motorists of the rising water last night have joined the search to find him.
The 60-year-old slipped and fell off a bridge into a swollen creek at Tolga on the Atherton Tablelands about 6:00pm.
He lives close to the bridge and had been trying to warn motorists of the rising waters, police said.
A search and rescue operation was launched shortly after and continued until 11:00pm.
It resumed early this morning with the help of the State Emergency Services (SES) as well as the man's family and friends.
Police Sergeant Bill Stanley said several other people who had been helping direct traffic tried to save him.
"They in fact tried to assist to get him out of the water as he was going down the creek and despite their very best effort they were unable to rescue him," he said.
"So he's continued down the creek until he disappeared from view."
'All the paddocks flooded so quickly'
One Tolga resident described the moment a wall of water came rushing by her house.
Krystle Krenske said the rain in her area did not start until about 4:00pm, but said two hours later 145 millimetres had fallen and "there was water everywhere and the easement was raging".
"It was so heavy and all the paddocks flooded so quickly," Ms Krenske said.
"It's not a small easement either so to see it go from trickling to raging in a matter of half an hour was pretty daunting.
"I'm glad the rain let up when it did or else it could have been much worse.
"I haven't seen anything like this in the past two years."
Heavy rain fell over the Atherton Tablelands for several hours on Wednesday afternoon, although a severe thunderstorm warning for parts of the North Tropical Coast and Tablelands, and the Herbert and Lower Burdekin forecast districts was cancelled just before 8:00pm.
By Wednesday night, 110 millimetres of rain had been recorded near Atherton since 9:00am.
- ABC
© ABC
2017
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