As the clouds began to part in flood-ravaged south-east Queensland, providing the Sunshine State with its first glimmer of sunlight in several days, bands of heavy rain converged over the Northern Rivers of NSW on Sunday and Monday, causing record-breaking floods in the state’s Lismore region.
The flooding in NSW’s north came as Queensland’s floods claimed the lives of eight people, after a man and his dog were found dead in a submerged vehicle on the Gold Coast on Monday …
Residents woke to the sounds of sirens as Lismore’s levee was breached after being hit with 406mm of rain between 9am on Sunday and 4am on Monday …
The floods in the region were “unprecedented”, the weather bureau’s senior meteorologist Jackson Browne said, with rainfall on Monday breaking the town’s weather records.
By noon on Monday, the Wilsons River at Lismore had reached 14.2 metres – almost two metres above the previous 1954 record of 12.27 metres, according to Weatherzone forecaster Ben Domensino.