Foo - My prayers go out to the people of Queensland...

Many of you are probably unaware of the devestating flooding which is hitting my home state of Queensland at this moment. Many towns and cities have been destroyed.
In the next two days, the flooding will peak and destroy many more homes and unfortunately push the death toll up.
http://ninemsn.com.au/

My friend in Australia sent me this video. Amazing how fast things could happen. :(


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kYUpkPTcqPY

Wow, that's unbelievable.

I hope your family there is safe, giantcfr1.

I love how the dude in the Land Cruiser just gets in and drives off with the water rushing around.

Dirty shame to live in such a beautiful part of the world and have to deal with this.

But if any Australians need to send me a Holden Ute or a Ford Falcon or some Vegemite or TimTams or anything for safe keeping, PM me. ;)

Best wishes that waters recede soon and no more fatalities. One of my kids is fruit picking/packing in Bundaberg right now as summer job before attending his next semester at Monash/Melbourne as part of a year of study abroad, even though he pays tuition to Purdue here in Indiana. So far, he's just out of work a few days at a time, but there is water everywhere and it keeps raining. Needs to stops the raining.

+1 on the TimTams, my last pack lasted about 10 minutes on the plane once I opened them.

Good luck to all going thru this ****. Funny thing, the lady in the vid Siu posted is wrong about the dude letting the air out of his tires, I'm sure he was engaging the manual four wheel drive thingy.

Good luck to all going thru this ****. Funny thing, the lady in the vid Siu posted is wrong about the dude letting the air out of his tires, I'm sure he was engaging the manual four wheel drive thingy.

Ahh, manual locking front hubs.

Yes its horrific now. When the flooding started weeks ago way up North it was mostly slow moving water that had spread out over flood plains and it was only a metre or so deep. It caused damage but it wasn't so deadly. Now that it has moved south its rushing through valleys so its deep and moving fast. Very deadly now.

Anthony

The ramifications are horrifically huge. The flooding is expected to work its way down the major rivers over the next 12 weeks so that other parts of the country currently unaffected may be. And the weather forecasters are saying that because of the extended La Nina effect, Queensland can quite possibly expect a couple of cyclones (hurricanes/typhoons) and even more rain events similar to what has just occurred well into March.

The forecasters aren't even confident enough to predict if and when the La Nina effect will actually subside. In normal circumstances, it would lighten off in April.

The flood level predicted through Brisbane is 5.5 metres. The previous record flood was in the early 1970s, when it peaked at 5.45 metres. There has been some mitigation with the construction of the Wivenhoe Dam, but even this has been running at more than 200 percent of capacity, so its mitigation effect is now almost nil.

We've had reports of people watching other people washing past and putting their hands our to pull them clear only to realised they are dead bodies.

Put all that together, and it is jaw-dropping. In my estimation, the scale is on a par with the San Adreas fault producing an earthquake on the scale of 8 to 9.

It is thought that it will take two years for Queensland's infrastructure and economy to recover. I went through the Black Saturday bushfires here in Victoria two years ago and trust me, with the scale of damage up north, I can imagine the timeline moving out to between five and 10 years.

The public appeal set-up after the bushfires really helped people like me who lost homes and belongings (let alone loved ones).So, if you can, find a way to donate (on-line with CC perhaps) to the flood appeal. Please. We aren't a third world country and our troops are serving in the Middle East as loyal allies of America. Every little bit helps.

Wow, that's unbelievable.

I hope your family there is safe, giantcfr1.

Thankyou, my family are on The Gold Coast, as is my Australian home. The Gold Coast is about 90km from the CBD of Brisbane but so far, The Gold Coast hasn't had so much destruction. I believe the beaches are all gone, but that's replacable. The stories coming from the news rooms are shocking.

And it's starting to rain and flood down south in the state of Victoria.

Sweet. Just in time for me to arrive next week for a cycling event. Hope my race isn't washed out.

Jonny, it hasn't stopped raining here since November! And the flooding is a second wave.

What event and where?

Jonny, it hasn't stopped raining here since November! And the flooding is a second wave.

What event and where?

Alpine Classic 250km.

Bright, Mt Hotham, Falls Creek, Mt Beauty, Kiewa Valley>>>Tawonga Gap, Bright.

Most of this is at altitude, it's the Ovens and Kiewa Valley sections that might suck. Might be damn cold across the High Plains too!

The public appeal set-up after the bushfires really helped people like me who lost homes and belongings (let alone loved ones).So, if you can, find a way to donate (on-line with CC perhaps) to the flood appeal. Please. We aren't a third world country and our troops are serving in the Middle East as loyal allies of America. Every little bit helps.

Rowan, do you have a link to the flood appeal site?

ahh, manual locking front hubs.

Thats it! :)

Rowan, do you have a link to the flood appeal site?

http://www.qld.gov.au/floods/donate.html

Here is the official state government website. I was saddened to notice that the first paragraph is one warning about scams and fake charity collections.

I'm fortunate enough to live in a suburb of Brisbane that is not significantly affected by flooding. Other parts of Brisbane (particularly inner suburbs, and some southern suburbs) are well under water. It's surreal; part of the city is fine, and the other part is completely inundated. We fortunately haven't had any deaths in Brisbane. Grantham and other parts of QLD outside of Brisbane have suffered horrific loss of life. The current death toll is 12, with a 13th to be confirmed.

I freaked out when I saw footage of the flash flooding in Toowoomba. My senile grandmother lives there, and she's started wandering off! :O I hope they've tethered her so she doesn't wander off to her death. :(

Max

It's about time I made a post on this subject. For those who don't know, my home state of Queensland has been absolutely hammered by a record flood over the last couple of weeks. Somehow this flood has miraculously avoided my home city of the Gold Coast, and life goes on relatively normally here, despite the fact that everywhere around us is currently under water. I personally have had a nasty cold to contend with, but that's of no consequence really.

In the west, some towns such as Dalby and Chinchilla have been submerged several times over in the last few weeks, and the town of Dirranbandi has apparently been cut off from the outside world for three consecutive weeks. Closer to home, the mountain top town of Toowoomba was hammered by a major flash flood that was literally washing cars away -- that was about three days ago. That evening, the village of Grantham at the foot of the mountains was almost totally washed away. I've ridden through Grantham a few times in the past, it was quite a lovely little village, and some of the stories there have been absolutely horrific.

Yesterday it was Ipswich, to the west of Brisbane (home to around 160,000 people). One of my co-workers has family there, they have been safe from what I hear, but there are apparently another 78 people unaccounted for right now. As I type this, large parts of the city of Brisbane, home to around 2 million people are underwater. My mother lives there. Last I heard she was OK, and it appears the worst of it has now passed -- assuming it doesn't rain again in the next few days. Personally, I have never seen anything like this before, and it puts a heck of a lot of things into perspective.

There have been some good news stories to come out of this. High profile sports people such as Lance Armstrong and Tim Cahill (and quite a few others) have offered some assistance in terms of raising funds for the victims. Plenty of other people (including former Prime Minister Kevin Rudd) have pitched in and got their hands dirty on location. Those who wish to donate to the appeal can do so at http://www.qld.gov.au/floods/donate.html .

My friend in Australia sent me this video. Amazing how fast things could happen. :(


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kYUpkPTcqPY

Just remember, Toowoomba is at the TOP of the mountain range. It would have been twice as bad in the Locker valley.

:( where's machka? She posted in another forum recently and made mention of her cabin (she's in a town/city now) - if still there and wasn't washed away by now. :(

Plenty of other people (including former Prime Minister Kevin Rudd) have pitched in and got their hands dirty on location.

I saw that clip on the ABC today. How many US politicians would be out there in muddy knee-deep water carrying people's suitcases overhead and asking the locals if they were evacuating? I also like how he told the cameraman and reporter "Yeah, my house is a kilometer that way... over there on the hill". I love it.

:( where's machka? She posted in another forum recently and made mention of her cabin (she's in a town/city now) - if still there and wasn't washed away by now. :(

Machka's with me safe and sound. We moved from the "Love Shack" about six months ago into a small town and a unit that has hot and cold running water, electricity supply, sealed roads, green grass and no cattle as neighbours. It's blissful, really.

We had our flood experience at the end of last year.. There is a good chance the "Love Shack' has been flooded many times over. Earlier seeping of water through the floor was one of the issues that decided us to move out.

In comparison to what happening in Queensland, the floods here in Victoria that forced evacuation of some residences as rivers rose, was a very very small pee in a very very big ocean.

Crazy stuff... stay safe!


Good luck to all going thru this ****. Funny thing, the lady in the vid Siu posted is wrong about the dude letting the air out of his tires, I'm sure he was engaging the manual four wheel drive thingy.

Ahhh!!! Good call. Would have been a shame for him to have lost that beast.

just some photos i took of the river where the bikeway usually is and the LBS underwater

185877

185878

just some photos i took of the river where the bikeway usually is and the LBS underwater

185877

185878

I google-map'ed it to see how it looks when is not flooded...

http://i301.photobucket.com/albums/nn53/RubenX_Longwood/Other/epic-cycles-2.png

Lots of water indeed.

How heart breaking!! :(


Jordan Rice was only 13, but when he realized not all of his family could be saved, he ended up making the ultimate sacrifice.

As floodwaters rushed up around him and his family, the Toowoomba, Australia, boy -- who was afraid of the water -- made a decision that would cost him his life: His little brother should be rescued first. Rice and his mother were swept away and drowned in the country's massive floods this week.

http://static-p-a.comcast.net/api/assets/cimed-20110113/flood.jpg

http://www.comcast.net/news/newswrap/6807128/savemybrotherfirstboy13sacrificeslifeinaustralianflood/

just some photos i took of the river where the bikeway usually is and the LBS underwater

185878

Epic Cycles has a nice little website. I hope they're all OK and back in business soon.

Geez!

Be safe. You're in my thoughts.

We do need to put this into a little context... there have been reports of 400 people killed in Brazil through floods and resultant landslide. We in Australia are lucky by a long shot compared with that.

My uncle's house and business are underwater and so are my cousins. They're staying with my other cousin who is not affected. Grandparents were close, their neighbour got flooded.