Floods …

I live in Brisbane, which is currently experiencing its worst flood in 100 years. As a young teenager, I lived through the floods of 1974. And my great grandmother lived through the floods of 1983.

I’m lucky, my family are all safe. We kept calling around yesterday to make sure everyone had checked the flood levels for ’74 and knew how high the water would come. My brother was headed to work through Toowoomba when he got a call to say don’t come in, so he missed the ‘inland tsunami’.

The fridge is full of food. We’re not expecting to lose power, but we do have a gas stove, so we’ll be able to cook if we do lose power.

It’s funny. This is the first sunny day we’ve had in ages, yet the news programs are constantly talking about the flooding and they keep showing views of the city with water lapping into buildings.

What’s even odder is that we’ve had 10 years of drought, when the dams got down to less than 15% capacity, now they are at 170% capacity and the flood gates are open, releasing the equivalent of two Sydney Harbours full of water each day.

The disaster had brought out the best in people, with strangers turning up to help people move their belongings and others risking their lives to save those trapped on cars or roofs.

9 Comments

Filed under The World in all its Absurdity

9 Responses to Floods …

  1. I’m glad you and your family are safe Rowena. It’s been heartbreaking and scary to watch the news reports. And so has the reports of people helping eachother. Wishing you all well up there in QLD. x

  2. Hi Rowena, Have you heard from Anita. I last heard from her on Monday when she said she was close to getting water in her house and since then nothing. I know her area was hit very bad.
    Good luck to you all.
    Valerie from Bundaberg.

  3. Thank you Rowena, I was starting to get worried.

  4. Cliff Pinnock

    I sincerely hope this will not inhibit the eventual arrival of KRK 4?
    If so, please let me know so that I can arrange inflateable arm bands for you and an inflateable raft for your computer. I assume you can type whilst treading water?
    But seriously though, do look after yourself in these moistly beleagured times!
    Regards
    Cliff

    • Hi Cliff,

      Thanks for the thoughts.

      We were fine. The local supermarkets were cleaned out by people panic buying. Only the vegetables that no one likes were left. LOL

      My son and his girlfriend were flooded in and without power for 48 hours but they were high and dry.

      It’s a surreal feeling. Some amazing footage of a whole floating restaurant scampering down the river and having it’s roof torn off as it went under a bridge. And more footage of 100 metres of board walk being swept down the river. A tug boat captain, on his own initiate, took his boat out onto the swollen river and maneuvered the board walk so that X tons of concrete didn’t strike the bridge pylons while traveling at 20 nautical miles an hour.

      I don’t start back at college lecturing until the 14th of Feb so I imagine the city will be open by then (the college is in the CBD). But lots of people will spend months getting their houses livable again.

  5. So glad to hear you and yours are safe Rowena.
    Been helping with the clean up in Ipswich. The Media seem to have forgotten that city. There are so many elderly people who’s family have been cut off from them with flooding still arround. So they are going it alone.
    It is back breaking work dealing with all that mud. Flood water is such a strange beast. It gets EVERYWHERE. If you can volunteer and can travel, head to Ipswich or further out of Brisbane. They’re in need too.
    Bring heavy duty rubber gloves, gumboots (they’re in short supply) wear long sleeves, long pants, hat, and insect repellant. Bring a shovel and a hard bristle broom. If you own one a high pressure hose they are so useful for getting into those really difficult places.
    Be ready for the smell. It is haunting.
    K off my soapbox.

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