Some Townsville residents given the green light to return home

ABC NEWS (Australia)

Residents in Townsville’s 'black zone' have been given the green light to return home after days of flooding. Authorities have told residents living in the six suburbs that with rain easing it is safe to go home but to remain alert.

Transcript

00:00That's the Ross River in the background.

00:05The concern was that it was going to burst through major level this morning, but there's

00:09been so little rain over the past 24 hours that it didn't reach the levels they were

00:14expected to, and it's actually just gone down to moderate.

00:17And so this is one of the six suburbs that was designated a black zone, where people

00:23were told they must get out several days ago because there were concerns that 1,700 homes

00:29in these suburbs could go under, could have water above the floorboards.

00:36And so it's still pretty quiet here because the order's only just recently come through

00:41that people can return, but I spoke to one woman down the street who said she's so relieved

00:47because they don't have to go through that drama that they did in 2019.

00:52The water level through here in 2019 was about my neck height, and so they had water through

00:59most of the homes along here, but yeah, they've escaped this time without major flooding.

01:06And thanks to the rain just easing off in the last 24 hours or so, they still had 50

01:11mils of rain, but in the context of what's happened with this deluge over the last week

01:17or so, it was enough for the river to stay low and these people can now return.

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