Woman 'nearly died' as tent swept away at popular Aussie camping site
Maddie Northeast was caught in the middle of a disastrous deluge that hit her campsite.
A young Aussie camping with her family has detailed a terrifying ordeal where she "nearly died" in a flash flood that swept her and her tent 40 metres away.
Maddy Northeast was asleep on New Year's morning when a nearby creek burst its banks. The torrent of water rushed through their campsite and washed her tent away while she was still inside, leaving neighbouring campers no choice but to cut her out of it with an axe in order to save her life.
The scary ordeal took place at Numinbah Valley in Queensland's Gold Coast which has been hammered with heavy rainfall and life-threatening flash flooding over the festive period.
"I got swept away in my tent 40 metres down a river, then trapped by a fallen tree," she said in a video posted online. "Started suffocating and tent was filling with water — had to be rescued by our camp neighbours cutting me out with an axe!"
The group of 14 people camping near the creek had no choice but to climb on top of their cars until the SES were able to take them to higher ground.
Despite the terrifying situation, the group have remained positive and are simply happy to be safe, with Maddy telling her followers she was "grateful to be alive". Her brother Josh added: "I lost my car and all our camp gear, but at least we came out safe."
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Mixed reactions from Aussies: 'That's what ya get'
Reacting to footage of the incident, some Aussies were sympathetic to the campers while others asked why they didn't check the weather forecast before setting up near a waterway. "Summer is Australia," one viewer said. "At least you have your lives and sense of humour." Another added: "That's what ya get camping in a creek bed."
"Well if you don't wanna listen to the warnings then what do you expect," someone else said. Maddy's scary ordeal comes after bad weather left a trail of destruction at Noosa North Shore — another popular camping area in the Sunshine Coast. Locals were left concerned that bans may be on the horizon due to irresponsible campers abandoning their gear.
East Coast battered by extreme weather
More than 500mm of rain doused the already saturated Gold Coast on Monday. Large parts of Australia’s east coast continue to be lashed with rainfall as dangerous floodwaters surge, trapping residents and causing widespread flood warnings.
A QFES spokeswoman said campers had been stranded by floodwaters at two separate sites in the Scenic Rim region, but all had been accounted for and had been moved to an evacuation area.
In New South Wales, the State Emergency Service responded to more than 115 call-outs in the past 24 hours, completing 27 rescues as waist-high floodwaters ravaged the Northern Rivers region.
A GoFundMe page has since been created to help the Northeast family replace their destroyed possessions.
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