Flash floods swamp southeast Australia as record October rainfall forces school closures

Torrential rain has triggered flash flooding across southeast Queensland, Australia, breaking multiple October rainfall records, stranding drivers, forcing school closures and prompting hundreds of emergency calls over two days.

The deluge began on Thursday with a water treatment plant near Moreton Bay, north of Brisbane, recording more than 250 millimetres of rain in 24 hours.

Some locations received nearly 180 millimetres in just three hours. Beerburrum recorded its wettest October day on record, while Toowoomba experienced its heaviest October rainfall in 29 years.

Flooded roads damaged infrastructure, disrupted electricity supplies and forced 14 schools to close.

Authorities urged residents in parts of Caboolture and Burpengary to prepare to evacuate as a fresh wave of rain struck southeast Queensland on Friday, compounding the damage.

Reporter jumps into floodwater to rescue trapped driver

One of the most dramatic moments of the crisis unfolded in Morayfield on Thursday, when Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) reporter Will Murray and a bystander jumped into floodwaters to rescue a driver trapped in a rapidly sinking car.

Murray told the ABC that the vehicle began to float and sink within seconds of driving into the flooded road, leaving no time to wait for emergency services.

“My colleague and I sort of started to watch him sink further into the water and thought, ‘well, we don’t have time to wait,’” Murray said.

“So I threw off my shoes, gave my glasses to my colleague and jumped in and started swimming. And thankfully somebody nearby jumped in with me to give me a hand.”

The pair initially tried to break the car’s rear windscreen but were forced to move to the side of the vehicle. What Murray saw through the back window made the urgency clear.

“Couldn’t get that door open. Got up onto the ute tray, looked through the back window and you could see that the water was up sort of shoulder level, sort of towards chin level, just terrifying and angling down,” he said.

They eventually managed to open a door and pull the driver to safety. No injuries were reported.

Authorities had already issued flood warnings across the area.

At least eight weather stations recorded more than 300 millimetres of rainfall between Wednesday and Friday morning, more than three times the volume originally forecast by the Bureau of Meteorology.

Wet conditions are expected to persist into the weekend, with forecasters warning of another peak on Monday and a cold front potentially shifting the weather pattern later in the week.

Parts of New South Wales are now also in the path of the storm system.