They say that the area of Qld under water is bigger than the state of NSW, or bigger than France & Germany - whatever the comparison, there's an amazing amount of water. More photos HERE show it too.
We are safe & high up here, but very waterlogged. It sure makes a change from the drought...yet down in Vic & SA they've been having record heatwaves around 44-45 deg. celsius last week. Weird.
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"...there are no limits when you aim for perfection..." Jonathan Livingston Seagull Posts: 7014 | From: Highgrove via Toowoomba, Queensland, Australia | Registered: Dec 2002
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P.S. Those "road subject to flooding" signs are generally about 6 ft to 8 ft above the road surface, and beside the floodway is usually a permanent concrete-mounted 'yardstick/metrestick' or sometimes two to give you an idea of how far down to the surface of the road, before you try to drive through...
These post-mount changeable message boards are usually mounted about 8-9 feet clear of the ground & roads to their underside:
[ January 05, 2011, 09:37 PM: Message edited by: Ian Stewart-Koster ]
-------------------- "Stewey" on chat
"...there are no limits when you aim for perfection..." Jonathan Livingston Seagull Posts: 7014 | From: Highgrove via Toowoomba, Queensland, Australia | Registered: Dec 2002
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Glad to hear you guys are safe. I've been wondering how our friends down under have been affected. I hope this wacky weather pattern ends soon, seems it's throwing everyone of kilter.
-------------------- “Did you ever stop to think, and forget to start again?” -Winnie the Pooh & A.A. Milne
Kelly Thorson Kel-T-Grafix 801 Main St. Holdfast, SK S0G 2H0 ktg@sasktel.net Posts: 5496 | From: Penzance, Saskatchewan | Registered: May 2002
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I remember when I brought RT over to help me paint some murals up in Rockhampton. Traveling outback on the way up 8 hours thru flat landscape, RT commented on the white posts by the sides of shallow dips in the road.
I said they were "flood ways" that "2" on the top of the scale is meters not feet
I can remember driving my van an hour west one time with over 6" of water across the road all the way. Wow, did you take notice on the levels of the roadside markers
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I feel sorry for the poor buggers that were drought affected 12 months ago and have had their first season in ages to make a quid. Now they need flood assistance.
[ January 06, 2011, 08:19 AM: Message edited by: David Fisher ]
-------------------- David Fisher D.A. & P.M. Fisher Services Brisbane Australia da_pmf@yahoo.com Trying out a new tag: "Parents are the bones on which children cut their teeth Peter Ustinov Posts: 1450 | From: Brisbane Queensland Australia | Registered: Nov 1998
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Damn, that's some serious rain fall. glad you guys are ok...
-------------------- aka:Cisco the "Traveling Millennium Sign Artist" http://www.franciscovargas.com Fresno, CA 93703 559 252-0935 "to live life, is to love life, a sign of no life, is a sign of no love"...Cisco 12'98 Posts: 3576 | From: Fresno, Ca, the great USA | Registered: Dec 1998
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the homes in the pic appear to be raised in anticipation of flooding ... am I seeing that right??? are they basically on stilts?
-------------------- Michael Gene Adkins The Fontry 1576 S Hwy 59 Watts OK 74964 Posts: 845 | From: Watts, OK USA | Registered: Jun 1999
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Many homes in Qld are on stumps or stilts- to lift them above the ground to catch breezes & be out of mosquitos' flying paths, and for extra storage underneath, but many are built on concrete slabs on the ground too.
-------------------- "Stewey" on chat
"...there are no limits when you aim for perfection..." Jonathan Livingston Seagull Posts: 7014 | From: Highgrove via Toowoomba, Queensland, Australia | Registered: Dec 2002
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Hey, Ian, what shall we call wall-dogs on the water? Water-Loggers? LOL
I see you have a a great bunch of deck-hands you've saved there . . . Think they'll be any good at changin' out the letters on the netball signs? Hey! They have that handy pocket for squeegees & tape!
I understand from the news, snakes are now a problem! Be careful out there - only make boots and belts out of 'em!
Seriously, we say prayers for y'all and hope the recovery will be soon.
In the meantime . . . they should do a TRUE SURVIVOR reality program and feature folks like you Ian who know how to handle crisis situations!!
-------------------- Signs Sweet Home Alabama
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"Look like a girl, act like a lady, think like a man, work like a dog" Posts: 5758 | From: "Sweet Home" Alabama | Registered: Mar 2003
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Click HERE for the update on Toowoomba's surprise mess this afternoon.
It's been pretty awful around here, but nothing like T'wmba. A friend working in Wow!, an electronics store said that water started coming in through the front doors, and barely 10 minutes later they were swimming out-you couldn't walk. His car had been picked up & taken away by flood waters in the carpark, but fortunately it was deposited upright & unscathed somewhere else and he was able to find it when things subsided a little unlike hundreds of others which ended upside down or on top of each other.
-------------------- "Stewey" on chat
"...there are no limits when you aim for perfection..." Jonathan Livingston Seagull Posts: 7014 | From: Highgrove via Toowoomba, Queensland, Australia | Registered: Dec 2002
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The video is pretty alarming. Jon's absence of posting makes me wonder if his Zimmer frame might have been washed away. Glad to hear all is well in the top of your hill
-------------------- David Fisher D.A. & P.M. Fisher Services Brisbane Australia da_pmf@yahoo.com Trying out a new tag: "Parents are the bones on which children cut their teeth Peter Ustinov Posts: 1450 | From: Brisbane Queensland Australia | Registered: Nov 1998
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We are OK thanks. We live on one of the highest rims of the Toowoomba basin.
Downtown is a mess, the range road,4 lanes, two up, two down is closed with mud and rock slides. Over 2000 big rigs use it everyday traveling north, south and west to and from Brisbane.
It's still raining with a lot more to come. Work is at a standstill. I have 4" of water thru my shed. Haven't assessed the damage yet but there a number of cardboard boxes in there packed ready for the move
The driveway was river of water off the back street. It looks like it's gouged more ruts down to the base rock. Maybe I'll go look for more opals later.
posted
I think that drought is over, as of yesterday, Barb!
Actually for just this month to date we've exceeded the total annual rainfall of 2006 & 2007 here. Those were very difficult years.
-------------------- "Stewey" on chat
"...there are no limits when you aim for perfection..." Jonathan Livingston Seagull Posts: 7014 | From: Highgrove via Toowoomba, Queensland, Australia | Registered: Dec 2002
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My two eldest daughters are in Warwick at the moment. We bought them a week at a horse/trail riding farm for their birthdays. I don't think they will be doing much riding, the roads in and out of Warwick are cut off as of an hour ago. I suspect the tack and stables will be a whole lot cleaner.
-------------------- David Fisher D.A. & P.M. Fisher Services Brisbane Australia da_pmf@yahoo.com Trying out a new tag: "Parents are the bones on which children cut their teeth Peter Ustinov Posts: 1450 | From: Brisbane Queensland Australia | Registered: Nov 1998
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omg, that must have been a helluva day in your neck of the world. i am glad you guys are safe...so glad.
-------------------- We are related to all things. "Mitakuye oyasin" "patsee" Norman, Oklahoma signs@itlnet.net Posts: 20 | From: Norman, Oklahoma USA | Registered: Sep 2001
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I've just been listening to the British World News on NPR ... had no idea you guys had basically, a tsunami . . . very glad to hear you are safe . . . but so saddened to hear of the deaths, and those still missing, and the destruction . . .
You & your family, Ian & his, and all, those who are part of the rescue efforts, are certainly in our prayers . . .
-------------------- Signs Sweet Home Alabama
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"Look like a girl, act like a lady, think like a man, work like a dog" Posts: 5758 | From: "Sweet Home" Alabama | Registered: Mar 2003
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What about Kel and Diane Lawton, my prayers are with you, have been very concerned. I heard this morning that the floating hotel crashed into a bridge. You are all so strong, but these are bad times for you. God Bless all of you, Deb
-------------------- Deb Fowler
"It's kind of fun to do the impossible - Walt Disney (1901-1966) Posts: 5373 | From: Loves Park, Illinois | Registered: Aug 1999
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Kel & Diane are fine-nowhere near any low-lying areas, nor rivers.
The water that hit the Murphy's Creek, Lockyer Valley, Ipswich & Brisbane, as well as more northern towns was devastating on Tuesday. Metres of it flew down with most residents having zero warning.
Many livestock stud breeders lost everything- a report I read last night was of one place that lost 16 racehorses, 32 standardbreds, a barn of 16 yearlings, and others in nearby paddocks totalling 83 horses- all drowned. Workers on the farm could only frantically try & climb onto the roof of the biggest shed or house & await a rescue helicopter while the waters lapped the upper floor gutters. There was no time to even think about letting any animals out to anywhere, of the people doing it would have been swept away.
Today in the paper was a report of looting in Brisbane. I'll quote it below-it's almost funny to read it, if it weren;t so serious.
"LOOTING is on the rise in the south-east, with two brazen thieves making a slow-speed getaway in a canoe after being sprung trying to break into a convenience store in Brisbane's southside.
Police Commissioner Bob Atkinson was straight-forward today in expressing his disgust with "low-life" alleged looters.
"You will be caught," he said.
About 10am this morning, two men in a bright red canoe attempted to break into the Fairfield 7-Eleven when security staff spotted them and waded into the water after them.
Unfortunately, the water was too deep for security staff to continue the chase and the thieves made their escape by paddling up Fairfield Road.
Store owner Roy Meng said he may not be able to enter his store for another week to see if anything was taken.
``The water is just still too high right now,'' he said."
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"...there are no limits when you aim for perfection..." Jonathan Livingston Seagull Posts: 7014 | From: Highgrove via Toowoomba, Queensland, Australia | Registered: Dec 2002
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That picture is from Ipswich where roughly half the town went under, including the city centre.
Here's a vaguely amusing story from it:
"BUTCHER Steven Bateman spotted two bull sharks swimming near his Goodna shop yesterday - one of several reports of a sharks in Goodna's main street.
The Queensland Times reported the shark sightings, 30km from the coast, with Ipswich local councillor Paul Tully confirming it was a bizarre but true story out of Queensland's flood disaster.
``It would have swum several kilometres in from the river, across Evan Marginson Park and the motorway,'' Cr Tully said.
``It's definitely a first for Goodna, to have a shark in the main street.
``I know Steve (Bateman) and he wouldn't say he saw a shark unless he really saw one.
``It's not like there have been polar bears or crocodiles spotted.'' "
The loss of human life has been staggering though. I believe the actual figures are being kept a secret as more bodies are slowly being found.
The spread of damage is phenomenal from Rockhampton & Emerald 650 km north of here, Chinchilla & Tara, 150 km west, Condamine 250 km SW, Oakey 45 km south, Toowoomba 72 km SW, and from there to Brisbane spreading 150 km east, in a band 90 km wide at the range. The western towns had maybe half a day's warning or more. The ones closer had maybe half an hour's warning if they were lucky. It was just so unexpected & long-lasting.
-------------------- "Stewey" on chat
"...there are no limits when you aim for perfection..." Jonathan Livingston Seagull Posts: 7014 | From: Highgrove via Toowoomba, Queensland, Australia | Registered: Dec 2002
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Here's another quote from soneone who spent the night on the roof of their house before being helicopter-winched to safety (the bite of the brown snakes here is exceedingly lethal):
"``Not long after we got up there the first of the brown snakes drifted by and clung to the roof.
``We were drenched, it was dark and we had to keep fending away the snakes with rolled-up towels. More and more of them kept coming.''"
-------------------- "Stewey" on chat
"...there are no limits when you aim for perfection..." Jonathan Livingston Seagull Posts: 7014 | From: Highgrove via Toowoomba, Queensland, Australia | Registered: Dec 2002
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Local rugby league hero's statue gets a makeover. The stadium behind was inundated to the third level of seating
I just like this guys sense of humour
One taken 100m to the east of us.
One taken 100m to the west of us. Shopping centre in background. Higher ground to the right not visible in the pic is now a bivouac for an infantry group while clean up goes on
-------------------- David Fisher D.A. & P.M. Fisher Services Brisbane Australia da_pmf@yahoo.com Trying out a new tag: "Parents are the bones on which children cut their teeth Peter Ustinov Posts: 1450 | From: Brisbane Queensland Australia | Registered: Nov 1998
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