Company owner Eric Anderson told ProPrint that the company’s East Street premises weren’t breached by the floodwaters, which reached a peak of 9.2 metres yesterday in some parts of the city. Flood levels had been forecast to reach a peak of 9.4 metres.
“We’re fine, we survived it. The water lapped the gutters at the front of the building, so if had been a couple of centimetres higher it might have reached our front door,” Anderson said.
“But it’s reached its peak, so we should be right.”
It is unknown how much the floods affected other printers in the region. ProPrint could not reach any other printers in the area, despite repeated attempts to contact 10 other companies in Rockhampton and Emerald.
Have you been affected by the Queensland floods? Leave your comments below or email dfitzgerald@proprint.com.au.
City Printing Works is based just two blocks from the swollen Fitzroy River, and hence under the greatest threat from rising waters of any Rockhampton printers, said Anderson.
However, the company only missed four days of trading. City Printing Works was closed for the Christmas period from 24 December and set to re-open on Tuesday (4 January), though has been forced to push this back until 10 January.
Anderson said the company prepared for the floods by gluing a heavy plastic covering to the floor, cementing over its stormwater drains to prevent water rising through them, and placing three loads of sandbags around its machinery, which is comprised of a variety of single-colour offset machinery.
He added that the main concern at this stage was supply, as road closures are expected to cause “major problems”.
“Delivery will be a problem. The only road open at this stage is the road from Rockhampton to Mackay,” he added.
At the time of writing, Queensland Department of Transport and Main Roads information reported that the Bruce Highway was closed north and south of Rockhampton, cutting off the main routes to the rest of the state.
Anderson estimated his company had enough paper stocks to continue operating until the roads re-open.
“We’ve got reasonable stocks, but we’ve got orders in Brisbane that we placed before Christmas that can’t get through,” he said.
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