Flash flood swamps beer garden

THE Lakes Creek Hotel lived up to its name as a great watering hole yesterday – just ask Steve Robertson and Jade Crockett.

The two miners were on their way to work when heavy rain forced them to pull over.

They went into the popular North Rockhampton hotel to find flash flooding had swamped the venue’s beer garden.

“It’s just so wet,” Jade said as he sipped his beer about 11.30am.

“We had to pull over because the rain was that hard.”

He said he hadn’t seen it that heavy for some time.

“It just poured and poured,” Jade said.

“There’s water right through this place (the beer garden).”

The rain reached the second step at the hotel and the duo estimated it about “a foot” (30cm) high.

“It’s given us a good excuse for a beer,” they said.

For the hotel’s general manager, Chris Broad, it’s the first time he’s seen rain that heavy in the 18 months he’s managed the place.

Chris said a staff member alerted him to the flooding.

“She started screaming and shouting, saying it’s coming through,” Chris said.

“It came up over the steps.”

He said everything happened quickly.

“Twenty minutes of heavy rain and it was here, but I’m not too worried as it drains away pretty quickly,” Chris said.

He said the nearby Nerimbera Soccer Club’s field was swamped with water well up the goalposts.