Parks inundated in multi-billion dollar disaster

FLOODS HORROR RECALLED

No warnings or advice, claims caravan park owner

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A CARAVAN park operator has relived the horror of battling Queensland's worst ever floods.

Wallace Motel and Caravan Park owner John Kennedy recalled at the Queensland Floods Commission of Inquiry how he and staff worked flat out evacuating tourists and visitors when his riverside park at Maryborough was inundated in the January killer floods.

He had used his own initiative to move caravans and cabins to higher ground, seal sewerage outlets and disconnect power supplies ... all while knee-deep in water.

"We did not receive any warnings at all or advice from anybody about evacuation," he claimed.

Giving evidence at the inquiry, he criticised Fraser Coast Regional Council for allegedly having no disaster management strategies in place.

Mr Kennedy told the hearing that when he bought the caravan park in 2005 he was told there would be two to three days' warning of impending floods, based on rising floodwaters at Gympie to the south.

"But the only avenue we knew to monitor the water levels was the Bureau of Meteorology website," he said, claiming the council had failed to communicate clearly throughout the disaster.

Mr Kennedy, who drew up an evacuation plan after buying the park, said he realised when floodwaters first began encroaching on his property on December 28 last year that the area had no disaster management strategy.

"It was frightening to realise the words 'prevention' and 'warning' were not part of the local planning, and there had been no preparation at all in our local area," he added.

Witness statements presented to the inquiry claimed that Maryborough's mayor, council staff and emergency services had abandoned local businesses during the floods.

Testimonies from inquiry hearings at towns and cities in the disaster area will be used by Commissioner Catherine Holmes to prepare her final report into the flooding, which wreaked havoc around Queensland.

At least seventy towns and cities and over 200,000 people were affected, with the damages bill estimated at billions of dollars.

Hundreds of caravanners were marooned as raging floodwaters cut major highways.

Caravan parks at Bundaberg felt the full force of the disaster, with guests and residents evacuated as the rising waters indundated caravans and other RVs.

Many other caravan parks and resorts across the state were also affected by Queensland's worst flooding in history which claimed 35 lives.

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