School students rescued from camp as deluge floods two states

Hundreds of millimeters of rain have fallen in both regions over the past two days, with multiple river flood warnings issued on either side of the border.

Emergency services carried out several rescue operations.

Among them was a group of about 50 students and teachers from North Lakes State College, who were on a camping trip at Mount Barney, near the Queensland-NSW border.

“During the return of activities, rapidly changing weather conditions impacted access to the camping accommodation,” the school said in a new statement posted on social media this morning.

“Emergency services, including the State Emergency Service (SES), Queensland Police Service (QPS), Queensland Fire Department (QFD) and Queensland Ambulance Service (QAS), assisted staff and students to return safely to the SES base.

“Students and staff remained safe during the incident and were returned to the college overnight where students were reunited with their families.”

This morning the NSW SES also said it had responded to 197 incidents and carried out three rescues involving people and vehicles trapped in floodwaters at Numinbah, Brewongle and Goongerry.

“We have seen several flood rescue operations that could have ended very badly,” said SES Assistant Commissioner Dean Storey.

“Thanks to the quick response from NSW SES and our emergency service partners, everyone was brought to safety.”

He said the SES continued to work with local communities to prepare for further flooding and rain, and urged people to avoid the roads.

“The safest thing people can do right now is to stay where they are and not travel until the waters recede,” he said.

Falls of up to 240 mm have been recorded in the cross-border region in recent days.

“Dryer weather will return from Tuesday afternoon and night as the system moves away from the east coast of the country.”

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