{"id":507542,"date":"2026-01-11T02:36:11","date_gmt":"2026-01-11T02:36:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/507542\/"},"modified":"2026-01-11T02:36:11","modified_gmt":"2026-01-11T02:36:11","slug":"queensland-braces-for-more-flooding-as-tropical-cyclone-koji-makes-landfall-queensland","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/507542\/","title":{"rendered":"Queensland braces for more flooding as Tropical Cyclone Koji makes landfall | Queensland"},"content":{"rendered":"

Residents are being \u201csmashed\u201d by heavy rain and fierce wind gusts after Tropical Cyclone Koji crossed the coast in north Queensland<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Wind gusts up to 100km\/h brought down trees and fences as the cyclone tracked south to south-west, with residents from Bowen to Mackay in the line of fire as the system crossed the coast, the Bureau of Meteorology said on Sunday morning.<\/p>\n

Residents of Marian, about 30km west of Mackay, said roads were closed and water levels were rising after conditions intensified.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are getting absolutely smashed,\u201d Stephanie, a mother of one, said.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur fence is down, our neighbour\u2019s fence is down. The rain is just sideways. There\u2019s nothing we can do but just wait it out. The back yard is flooded \u2013 it\u2019s worse here than we were expecting.\u201d<\/p>\n

Heavy rain fell on the town, with the bureau reporting 146mm of rain in just two hours at nearby Gargett.<\/p>\n

In Mackay, Josephine Tobias \u2013 a tourist staying at the Mackay caravan park \u2013 said locals knew how to cope.<\/p>\n

\u201cHonestly, so far here it\u2019s not too bad at the moment,\u201d Tobias said. \u201cWe chose to stay, and it\u2019s wet, and it\u2019s windy, but everything is OK.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is the first time I\u2019ve been through a cyclone, but everyone keeps telling me it\u2019s just a category one and not to panic. It\u2019s like a really bad storm that just keeps going.\u201d<\/p>\n

Further north in the town of Bowen, residents were on alert as the storm system approached.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe wind has just suddenly changed direction,\u201d the manager of Coral Cove Apartments, Karyn, said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been coming from the south all night, and it\u2019s just changed direction in the last 30 minutes. It\u2019s been raining on and off, and it\u2019s pretty gusty, but we will have power.\u201d<\/p>\n

Heavy rain was hammering Ayr and Mackay, and damaging 100km\/h wind gusts hit tourism hotspot the Whitsunday Islands.<\/p>\n

Overnight falls of up to 200mm were recorded west of Mackay, with the bulk of the falls expected in the next two days.<\/p>\n

\u201cCyclone Koji is crossing the coast between Ayr and Bowen,\u201d a BoM senior forecaster, Dean Narramore, said on Sunday.<\/p>\n

Sign up: AU Breaking News email<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cWe can see a lot of rainfall spiralling around the system \u2013 it\u2019s a very lopsided system with most of the heaviest rainfall near and well south of Tropical Cyclone Koji, and that\u2019s why we\u2019re particularly concerned about our residents and communities from around the Ayr and Bowen area, down through the Whitsundays.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s bringing strong to locally damaging winds and also widespread heavy rainfall that is going to lead to widespread flooding in the coming days, on top of what is already going on through parts of Queensland.\u201d<\/p>\n

Narramore told ABC TV after midday that the system had been downgraded to ex-Tropical Cyclone Koji.<\/p>\n

Anthony Albanese said the storm was expected to bring large amounts of rainfall.<\/p>\n

\u201cDangerous and life-threatening flash flooding is a major risk along a significant stretch of Queensland\u2019s coast,\u201d the prime minister said when visiting communities in Victoria affected by bushfires that have destroyed at least 300 structures<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe situation is dynamic and likely to change regularly, so people should actively monitor local emergency services and the Bureau of Meteorology for updates.\u201d<\/p>\n

Queensland\u2019s premier, David Crisafulli<\/a>, praised the preparation of communities who had endured floods in the past.<\/p>\n

\u201cI do believe that people have prepared brilliantly for the rain that will come,\u201d he said on Sunday.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf Queenslanders continue to do that, then I have every faith we will respond following the event.\u201d<\/p>\n

Warnings were in place for much of the north-east Queensland coast from Townsville to Mackay, including Bowen, Proserpine and the Whitsundays.<\/p>\n

Heavy rainfall leading to flash flooding was developing between Townsville and St Lawrence, and tides were likely to be higher than normal between Cardwell and Mackay, the bureau noted.<\/p>\n

The heavy downpours could add to already-soaked catchment areas.<\/p>\n

After crossing inland on Sunday morning, gales were expected to ease rapidly as Koji weakened and then tracked westwards.<\/p>\n

In the north-west, major flooding that had already heavily affected gulf country communities \u2013 where livestock losses are projected to be significant<\/a> \u2013 continued on the Flinders River.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Residents are being \u201csmashed\u201d by heavy rain and fierce wind gusts after Tropical Cyclone Koji crossed the coast…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":507543,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[4740,50],"class_list":{"0":"post-507542","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news","8":"tag-australia","9":"tag-news"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115874141847315516","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/507542","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=507542"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/507542\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/507543"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=507542"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=507542"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=507542"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}