QLD:Music festival disrupted by flash floods

AAP General News (Australia)
04-23-2011
QLD:Music festival disrupted by flash floods

SYDNEY, April 23 AAP - A Christian music festival has been disrupted when heavy rains
brought flash flooding and split the roof of its main pavilion at Toowoomba - a town inundated
in the January floods.

Heavy rains descended on Toowoomba, about 100km west of Brisbane, and the annual EasterFest
on Saturday evening (AEST).

The festival is held at Queens Park, next to East Creek, which surged above its banks
and caused minor flooding in the park.

Rain also accumulated on the tent roof of the main pavilion, causing it split and pour
inside, a Department of Community Safety spokeswoman told AAP.

An estimated 15,000 people were in attendance when police started evacuations.

"Basically, they're evacuating the entire area," the spokeswoman told AAP.

No one was injured during the incident and the Bureau of Meteorology cancelled its
severe weather warning for the area just before 10pm.

Some festival attendees expected campgrounds in the park to be evacuated when flash flooding.

The department spokeswoman said evacuations were confined only to the festival itself.

Flash flooding on January 10 ravaged the town's CBD, resulting in fatalities.

Blake Rice, 10, was saved by a passer-by when a wall of water pummelled the car he
and his family were in but his brother Jordan, 13, and mum Donna Rice died.

International and Australian artists were scheduled to perform at the festival, which
attracts people from all over Queensland and interstate.

Around 30,000 people attend the event each year.

AAP vpm/dep

KEYWORD: FLOODS QLD UPDATE

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