[Archived] Queensland Floods

[dave birch]

Could I, on behalf of Rovers Supporters everywhere, offer our hope and prayers that fellow Rovers supporters (we know of John Leigh and Neekoy) and their families are safe and well.

This has been a catastrophe of major proportions, the like of which we will likely not see again in our lifetime.

I've been to many of the places and the views of Toowoomba are incredible. That would be about the last place you'd expect a 4 metre wall of water belting down the main street.

Chins up lads, we're thinking of you.

[Paul]

Dave, this sounds a daft question but what is the cause of this flooding? I have the impression the floods began over Christmas and were not widely covered on British media, I wasn't even aware of them until my wife wondered how a friend of ours might be getting on.

There doesn't seem to have been any reporting of widespread storms or heavy rainfall which surely must be the cause of the flooding?

[dave birch]

Paul, it's been raining heavily for about six weeks along the coast of Queensland. First up near Rockhampton and then down the coast to Brisbane.

Yesterday, apparently, they had 4 inches of rain in an hour in Toowoomba, that was on top of a couple of inches in the previous few hours. It's got to the stage where the ground is saturated and any further rain is just runoff. The scenes of cars and 4WD's being washed away was amazing. Houses exploded with water inundating them, one I saw on TV showed the whole back of the house blown open by the force of the water, I'm not taking about the doors and windows, I'm talking about the whole of the back wall of the house.

They are now talking about Brisbane, Australia's third largest city being inundated. Places where I walked in September are under metres of water. My favourite Brisbane restaurant (Il Centro) will be under.

Having said all that, I'm concerned for Neekoy and John Leigh and their families. This is a huge problem in Queensland and will be for weeks and months to come.

[SAS]

Could I, on behalf of Rovers Supporters everywhere, offer our hope and prayers that fellow Rovers supporters (we know of John Leigh and Neekoy) and their families are safe and well.

This has been a catastrophe of major proportions, the like of which we will likely not see again in our lifetime.

I've been to many of the places and the views of Toowoomba are incredible. That would be about the last place you'd expect a 4 metre wall of water belting down the main street.

Chins up lads, we're thinking of you.

Agreed.

This is an awful disaster. Especially in such a modern city it is tragic the amount of people it will affect.

[thenodrog]

Dave, this sounds a daft question but what is the cause of this flooding? I have the impression the floods began over Christmas and were not widely covered on British media, I wasn't even aware of them until my wife wondered how a friend of ours might be getting on.

There doesn't seem to have been any reporting of widespread storms or heavy rainfall which surely must be the cause of the flooding?

Hope everyone we know is Ok over there. We moan about living on a small island with a temperate climate and envy those who have gone to sunnier climes but at times like these it does introduce a touch of reallity.

I may be mistaken but isn't this down to the effects of La Nina? An opposite effect to the more widely known El Nino? Basically the Eastern Pacific cools and brings dry weather and drought to much of South West America whilst dumping the moisture on the Western Pacific regions. Dave?

[SouthAussieRover]

You are correct Gordon.

[thenodrog]

You are correct Gordon.

gulp!

Admin..... can you somehow frame this please?

[modes98]

I've been following this carefully as I have close friends in Brisbane. Seems they are ok as they live in high distrcits but with the water levels still rising and not thought to peak until Thursday it is far from over. Predicted to be the highest flood levels since 1893. The Wivenhoe dam is currently 190% of optimimum capacity (at 225% it overflows) and from the news report I believe they are trying to slowly release some to keep get it down without adding to the problem.

Some of the pictures and videos are just remarkable. Brisbane Times

There is also a donation link on there to help with the disaster fund, should anyone feel the need to help.

[Claytons Left Boot]

We have three lots of relatives in Queensland - two in Brisbane and one in Caloundra up the coast. All are ok - one of the garden areas in one of the Brisbane properties was flooded but the house was high enough to avoid the water.

We've heard the Pine Dam (presumably in Brisbane) is about to go.

As Dave says, chin up lads and lasses.

[roversmum]

So worried and sad for all these folks. Just don't know what to say, except that I'm sure everyone's thoughts and prayers are for those in the path of these disasters.

[Nate]

I think John Leigh is at Forest Lake, which is near me and pretty safe.

It's been raining up here as far back as November on and off then became more often.

Some of the footage of the flash flooding is unbelievable.

[dave birch]

Nate, I knew I'd forgotten a couple of names. Apologies.

I take it that you're OK?

I spoke to a friend near Ipswich Qld last night. She said they are OK, they are 40 metres above the usual level of the river, but that it will rise by 18 metres.

[Nate]

Yeah, all good here. Mainly all the low laying areas close to the river that are getting hit. Yeronga, Yerongpilly, Fairfield, New Farm etc.

Ipswich is getting hit from the Bremner river. CBD workers told not to go to work. Seems really surreal, I've not seen anything like this in my life.

[neekoy]

Thanks Dave for your thoughts, my family are stuck in Bundaberg and I flew back to Brisbane last night. I am in commercial property management and most of our buildings are CBD located so that should be awesome.

John should be OK at Forest Lake, to answer Paul the reason for the flooding in Brisbane is due to the main Wivenhoe damn (sic) being at 170% and they are undertaking a controlled release whcih will flood down river. They are looking at worse then 1974 which means about 2 metres of water through the entire CBD, the whole area has been evacuated however I still have (Please don't use that word again)wits trying to access the buildings to work.

If anyone needs anything please let me know, I have an empty house if anyone needs shelter and a cup of coffee.

[Anti-Dingle-Brigade]

Hope everyone makes it out okay.

As a student studying Geography with Natural Hazard Management, this is a topic very relevant to my course, no doubt we'll be looking at this over the coming weeks. I can't really provide much insight as I haven't researched the floods yet, but I can confirm much of what has been said already is very much true. Excessive, relentless rainfall has led to complete soil saturation and all current rainfall is simply becoming surface run off - the ground has essentially become impermable. As Theno rightly says, La Nina is partly to blame for what is happening. It's a naturally occuring 3-6 year cycle which cools the Eastern Pacific, the drop in sea temperatures creates mayhem with the weather.

The bad news is that this is looking like a strong La Nina phrase. It may well go on for a while.

The area needs to get dried out and recharged as soon as possible because more rain is guaranteed to come.

These events will become more common, sadly. Partly due to global warming and partly due to the constant urbanisation of the planet. The rate of decline of water-retaining catchments such as rainforests and common drainage basins is frightening. Even more so when you consider what they are being replaced by. Pure, grey, cold and most importantly, impermeable cities of concrete.

[adopted scouser]

gulp!

Admin..... can you somehow frame this please?

Click

[dave birch]

Just to let you know that Queenslanders have their priorities right.

This lifted from the ABC New website:

"Flood poses no risk to beer supplies

At this point in Queensland's flood crisis it is all about the small mercies, and while the XXXX brewery in Brisbane may be flooded, supply will not be affected.

The brewery off Milton Road was flooded as the Brisbane River peaked yesterday at 4.46 metres.

"Luckily we do keep the majority of our finished product in a separate warehouse at Hendra, which is on higher ground," corporate affairs manager Leela Sutton said.

"No stock has been impacted and we're continuing to make deliveries to people that we can in non-affected areas.

"Obviously we'll have quite a clean-up job on our hands at the breweries now that waters have started to recede."

Fourex is also donating $100,000 to the flood relief appeal, is matching its staff's donations, and has donated $180,000 worth of stock to pubs in flood-affected areas."

Neekoy/Nate/John, is there any truth in the rumour that Fourex are bottling floodwaters and selling it?

[neekoy]

Haha, nice.

I guess you just have to be a QLD boy to like XXXX

[Nate]

Neekoy/Nate/John, is there any truth in the rumour that Fourex are bottling floodwaters and selling it?

They've been doing it with cats pi55 for years, Dave

[Tim Southampton Rover]

Has the rain finished now or is there more to come?

Take care guys!

[Drunx2002]

Having spent a large amount of time in QLD (only venturing to NSW to see dave birch and sydney rovers!) in 2001/2 may of the places I visited were hit hard. The scenes in Rockhampton were staggering, closely then followed by Toowooomba and Brisbane.

I spent 6 weeks in Bundaberg and lived in Riverdale Caravan Park near the river (when I wasn't being slave driven to pick tomatoes and peppers for a pittance!). I'll never miss the place and some of the locals were "interesting" to say the least, but I wouldn't wish the devastation of flooding on anyone.

Hope the clean up goes well but it's going to take some serious money to repair that sort of damage.

[thenodrog]

Hope the clean up goes well but it's going to take some serious money to repair that sort of damage.

I wonder if an appeal to the Tsunami affected areas and the Pakistani earthquake region might generate some reciprocal charitable donations to help kick start the damage repairs?

[jim mk2]

I wonder if an appeal to the Tsunami affected areas and the Pakistani earthquake region might generate some reciprocal charitable donations to help kick start the damage repairs?

Only you could use a natural disaster to return to your anti-Asian agenda.

Brilliant.

[dave birch]

There you go Gord:

took all of 5 seconds.

"Offers of general assistance have been made by countries including Britain, the United States, Spain, Japan and Singapore.

Aid donations have come in from countries including regional neighbours Indonesia and Papua New Guinea.

The Queen has made a private donation to the Queensland premier's flood relief appeal, while the Chinese Red Cross has contributed $50,000.

Sri Lanka has offered supplies of tea."

I've not checked out what Thailand, India, The Maldives, and other countries affected by the Tsunami have offered.

Sometimes, just sometimes, it's better to say nothing.

[Anti-Dingle-Brigade]

I wonder if an appeal to the Tsunami affected areas and the Pakistani earthquake region might generate some reciprocal charitable donations to help kick start the damage repairs?

Dave got here before I did. They have, and will continue to contribute. More than you too, I'd guess.