I heard thunderstorms all night last night. When I woke up I had received a message that school was closed for years 7-11 due to flooding in Charles Creek. I had never seen water in Charles Creek before. I went for a drive later and saw an IGA van stuck, directly outside the school.
When I drove down to Wills Terrace, the road was blocked. I parked and walked towards the river. There were people and police everywhere. I wasn't allowed close. An OLSH student pointed out a guy who was hanging onto a tree in the middle of the raging river, just to the left of the 2 metre flood sign. You can see him if you enlarge the photo. Someone said he had been there for 5 hours.
I went back later after he had been rescued. He had been standing on top of his wrecked car, which had been swept off the causeway:
I drove back to the school and took some more pics of the causeway there and a family having a swim:
Just had a look at some stats. In the last 24 hours there has been 70mm of rain. You have to go back 20 years to beat that (
source)
update: Rainfall since 9am yesterday at #AliceSprings Airport is 95.8mm and rising. 24 hour rainfall has not been this high since 30 January 2001.
Related:
The Todd River
Three years in Alice
