17th Mar 2021 7:50 AM Residents in Sapphire have been advised to move to higher ground with major flooding expected as Retreat Creek continues to rapidly rise. One resident in the area reported recording 254mm of rain in three hours. An Emergency Alert was issued by Central Highlands Regional Council at 4.44am on Wednesday for residents in Sapphire. According to the alert, Retreat Creek was rising rapidly due to heavy rainfall, and major flooding was expected. Properties in low-lying areas were likely to be impacted. Council advised residents to warn neighbours, secure belongings and move to higher ground now. The Bureau of Meteorology had recorded the height of Retreat Creek at Sapphire as 9.8m and rising at 6.52am.
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A Sapphire business owner has praised the efforts of the local SES and Sergeant Paul Cognet on their swift responses to the major floods early on Wednesday morning.
Blue Gem Tourist Park owner Ewan Letts was woken to the news about 3.30am there had been a huge downpour in the catchment of Retreat Creek and he needed to evacuate his guests.
There was around six vans in the park that needed to be moved to higher ground.
“We were able to evacuate them without a drama,” Mr Letts said.
“The creek had risen dramatically to what it normally was … they had something like 217mm in the lower catchment … it was a very intense rainfall which resulted in the creek coming up very quickly.
 Huge areas of the east are already sodden with warnings of flash flooding in place for parts of central Queensland. Now forecasters have warned a second band of heavy rain is creeping from west to east across the country that could extend the deluge and deliver more flooding in the week to come. Some locations could see three times March s rainfall descend in just a few days. It s almost certain that most parts of the NSW coast and into southern Queensland will at least surpass their average monthly rain in the coming week. Huge amounts of rain could fall over the next eight days,
 Huge areas of the east are already sodden with warnings of flash flooding in place for parts of central Queensland. Now forecasters have warned a second band of heavy rain is creeping from west to east across the country that could extend the deluge and deliver more flooding in the week to come. Some locations could see three times March s rainfall descend in just a few days. It s almost certain that most parts of the NSW coast and into southern Queensland will at least surpass their average monthly rain in the coming week. Huge amounts of rain could fall over the next eight days,
Flooding in Queensland s Central Highlands sees parts of Sapphire township evacuated
By Lia Walsh, Chrissy Arthur and Paul Culliver
Posted 4
updated 4
MarMarch 2021 at 10:33am
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Low-lying homes in the central Queensland township of Sapphire have been evacuated and some people have been rescued from rooftops after a severe storm dumped more than 200 millimetres of rain early this morning.
Up to 215 millimetres fell into the Retreat Creek catchment, rapidly pushing the creek which skirts the southern end of the town to a major flood level.