As flood waters and general sogginess recede following cyclone Tasha,
Cairns weather will remain humid and wet with plenty more rain to come over the next week.
Cyclone threat passes - but prepare for another soaking
PEOPLE in soggy and submerged areas south of Cairns will barely have time to recover in cyclone Tasha's wake before the region is battered by another week of heavy rain.
Flood levels in most of the Far North’s swollen rivers had subsided yesterday, and the emergency relief effort was tapering as roads reopened and fallen trees were cleared.
But the reprieve could be short-lived, as the weather bureau says a moist, unstable northern flow is forecast to bring heavy downpours and storms to the region all week.
"They’ll develop inland in the afternoon or early evening, then make showers about the north tropical areas through the night," weather bureau forecaster Bill O’Connor said.
"We’ll have humid conditions, showers, isolated thunder storms and a period where we should see heavier falls too.
"We’ll probably have that for most part of the week."
Emergency Management Queensland regional director Wayne Coutts said that although water levels were retreating, some areas were in danger of reflooding if rainfall continues this week.
"Things are settling right down again, but obviously if it rains in the Mulgrave Valley area, it won’t take much to bring that water level back up again."
In the last of the post-Tasha clean-up, SES crews erected tarps and cleared driveways at a handful of homes at Gordonvale, Yungaburra, Mission Beach and Cairns yesterday.
The Bruce Highway was reopened at the Mulgrave River after a brief roadblock on Christmas Day but remains closed north and south of Ingham, which is experiencing heavy flooding.
East Russell resident Andrew Luce spent Christmas and Boxing Day clearing fallen trees from his 32ha property near Babinda.
"The water’s still up around 700mm over the bridge, so it needs to go down another 100mm or so before I can get my four-wheel-drive over it," he said.
"Most people tend to go back and forth by boat so we’ve been going over to town for the essentials – beer and rum."
Mr Luce said an SES volunteer was on hand, but residents weren’t rattled by the wet weather forecast.
As ex-cyclone Tasha and a separate tropical low in the Gulf continue to move inland away from Cairns, the clean-up bill from the weekend’s weather is yet to be calculated.
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