It's a bit bloody wet in Qld!

[Mad Aussie]

Had a few of you pm'ing or emailing me, asking about the floods we are experiencing here in Sth East Qld. To date I've answered that all is well for us directly ... and they still are ... just.

The situation here has escalated a heap over the course of the past few hours after a big day yesterday that saw an inland tsunami run a wall of water through a plateau town called Toowoomba about 2 hours west of us. I never would have thought that Toowoomba could possibly flood. But 72 people are still unaccounted for after it hit them yesterday afternoon and at least 8 are confirmed dead. Amazing scenes.

I've just rushed home from work to ensure that I could actually get home. The bottom of our street has a golf course which, after the river burst it's banks, is now one big water-trap! Another 200mm of water rise and the bottom of our street starts to go under water as well. Thankfully it will take another 5 metres of water rise to actually reach our house ... of course by then our house might be full of other people who live in the houses below us!!!
The forecast is another 12 hours of heavy rain. We've had up to 170mm per hour for the past few hours here. Huge!
There's worse to come for our city CBD yet.

My brother Graeme (the one battling cancer right now) has water literally lapping at his doorsteps ... and he doesn't actually have steps. My other brother (who has a big Toyota 4x4) had to go pick up Graeme's son Dean who was stuck at Kindergarten.
His father in law is in hospital undergoing a heart operation, just to add to their emotion trauma of cancer and flood.

In the end I think we'll all be ok :thumbup:

[Mad Aussie]

Videos of the Flash Flood that hit Toowoomba yesterday ... and that water is on it's way to Brisbane ...

http://www.news.com.au/breaking-news/floodrelief/flood-info-centre-updates-reports-warnings-advice-and-how-you-can-help/story-fn7ik2te-1225985436806


http://video.news.com.au/1735641410/Eight-dead-in-Qld-flash-flooding?area=videoindex3


Amateur video of the tsunami flood hitting toowoomba
Video: Inland tsunami (http://video.news.com.au/1735576463/Inland-tsunami?area=videoindex2)


Evacuations under way across Brisbane today. We are in the Strathpine area that you hear mentioned to be evacuated. This is about an hour old or so ...

http://video.news.com.au/1735636620/Evacuations-under-way-across-Brisbane?area=videoindex4


A photo gallery of the flooding around Queensland (104 photos so far)
floods | New flood pictures | News.com.au (http://www.news.com.au/pictures/gallery-e6frflv9-1225980728997?page=1)

Photo gallery of the Toowoomba floods (27 photos so far) - AMAZING stuff!
http://www.news.com.au/pictures/gallery-e6frflv9-1225985209684?page=2

[asnow]

Unbelievable. Seeing those pictures and others they have shown here in Canada is gut wrenching. Your description and the videos of Toowoomba sent chills up my spine. It is my understanding the extent of the flooding is as large as the province of British Columbia. From your friends in Canada, we are thinking about you and your fellow Aussies. To you and your family, keep safe mate.

[Iguanasan]

Wow! I thought you were well out of the way so I'm sorry to hear you are now getting pulled into it. Stay safe and good luck... we're all pulling for you guys!!

[Donna]

Amazing the power of water , throwing all those cars around and ripping open buildings ... How horrible!

[Mad Aussie]

Thanks guys/girls.

Since posting that up the water did breach the banks at the bottom of our street. I've just been out walking around in it taking a few snaps. Can't believe the water came up as far as it did. We always thought we were safe here but another 2 meters in height and we'd have water in our house. As you'll see from the snaps I took ... some people were as lucky at the bottom of our street.

Apparently they say it's going to be worse tomorrow for Brisbane but I don't think that will affect us.

Another big worry is the main Dam for Brisbane apparently has a crack in it! Not sure what that means exactly yet. The dam is currently at over 170% capacity which gives you some idea of thew water we've had lately.

Anyway ... time to check on family and get those snaps of the floods here at home up ;)

[Mad Aussie]

Here's a quick snap of our street. Our house is at the top of the picture. It's the red roofed house ... last of those houses on the left ... just above those red and white umbrellas. As you can see ... our houses are on banks above the street by a metre or two which gives us a bit of buffer I guess. Another 2 metres of water height though and we'd be wet too.

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5241/5345518064_13f590c050_o.jpg

I'll sort through the other photos and add them as I can.

[Mad Aussie]

Here's some shots from down where the water entered our streets ... we are lucky compared to these people ...
http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5204/5345290533_9049016625_o.jpg

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5209/5345901294_b5e56b62ed_o.jpg

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5005/5345290209_82e0590d41_o.jpg

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5130/5345290085_9894ae6c53_o.jpg

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5082/5345900732_d5b0d6c3de_o.jpg

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5164/5345289449_f5fa47c7e7_o.jpg

The water has receded off the street again now ... next high tide ... 2.30am ... about 6 1/2 hrs from right now. Guess I'll need to get up and go out and check the water isn't rising on us in the dead of night.

[Mad Aussie]

Turning into our street ...

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5042/5345900578_61df4d3d89_o.jpg

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5046/5345289611_77e228bbf5_o.jpg

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5207/5345900058_3a38d905d3_o.jpg



Electricity and water don't mix do they???
http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5249/5345289137_c7e5e57cf8_o.jpg

Not everyone was gloomy
http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5282/5345288973_3b17dabe79_o.jpg

Got a call from my two brothers earlier on ... they are both ok. Graeme said the water level didn't actually get into their house and has receded for now. I could hear Dean running around playing in the background so Glenn must have gotten the 4x4 in to deliver him home from Kindy ... which had been evacuated by the time he got there so he had to go somewhere else to collect him.

Tomorrow I'm supposed to head down the Gold Coast to help with a BMW presentation but not sure if I should as the Brisbane river is expected to be worse tomorrow afternoon.

The Wivenhoe Dam I mentioned earlier at around 170% reached 220% but has dropped a bit since then I think. Tomorrow they will open all floodgates to try to avert a total spillover which would obviously be catastrophic for many in it's path.

Another day ... more tough decisions I guess.

The state moto is "Queensland ... Beautiful one day ... perfect the next!"

I'll change it I think ... "Queensland glug glug glug ..."

[Bambi]

oh my goodness Mad Aussie- this is a major disaster for Australia for sure. If you can stay home- it doesn't seem safe to be out. The video footage in the first clip was unbelievable.

[Wicked Dark]

glad you are safe for the mo, I hope it continues. good photos, too. the one of the girls under the umbrella is especially poignant.

[Bambi]

I've read on another board that someone I know (well know through the board anyway) had to be rescued off of their roof and all but one of his horses drowned.:sad: (he lived in Crowley Vale)

[Mad Aussie]

Thanks Bambi and WD.

Crowley Vale I think you mean Bambi. That's just below Toowoomba ... and in the location where most of the people killed by these floods were. The water that killed his horse is the water on it's way here to us.

I still have to go to work, not happy about it but we have contracts and deadlines. I won't be in danger as such, but I could get trapped down the Gold Coast and not be able to get home tonight. Might be a very long day.

[Donna]

My fingers are crossed for you , What a horrible time for you people ... You've photographed it very well , by the way.

[Mad Aussie]

Thanks Donna :)

[Bambi]

Thanks Bambi and WD.

Crowley Vale I think you mean Bambi. That's just below Toowoomba ... and in the location where most of the people killed by these floods were. The water that killed his horse is the water on it's way here to us.

I still have to go to work, not happy about it but we have contracts and deadlines. I won't be in danger as such, but I could get trapped down the Gold Coast and not be able to get home tonight. Might be a very long day.

fingers crossed that you don't get stuck and that the damage isn't too bad in Brisbane.

[JAS_Photo]

Holy crap! That is something else. I can not believe how fast that water was moving. I hope you can all stay safe through all that and good luck to you!

[mbrager]

In spite of all that's going on you still have photos to share. True blue. Stay safe and our thoughts are with you. Mike

[Mad Aussie]

Thanks all. I just got home from work so I'm safe and sound now. The 1st peak for the flood is expected in an hour or so. As I crossed the Brisbane river an hour ago I saw pontoons washed up against the bridges ... boats afloat and flotsam everywhere. Terrible!

[Mad Aussie]

Hows this?? A Green Tree Frog (decent size one too) riding the flood waters on the back of one of the worlds most venomous snakes ... a Brown Snake!

Frog Rides Back Of A Snake Photo | Queensland Floods | Triple M (http://www.triplem.com.au/sydney/qld-floods-2011/queensland-flood-support-blog//blog/frog-on-a-snake-rides-queensland-floods/20110112-b2ke.html)

[Iguanasan]

It's one of those situations that kind of points out that the best camera is the one you have with you. Looks like it might be an iPhone photo.

[Bambi]

it's pretty bad when the frogs need to get out of the water!

some more good news, the person I was talking about outside of Brisbane returned home and somehow his horses had made it back- all but one. Pretty incredible given he saw them washed away.

[Bambi]

Here's another vid from the rain:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=to7TYBhHY0I
it shows how quickly the water rose

[casil403]

I heard it on CBC this monring that the wall of water from Towoomba was heading for Brisbane...stay dry MA.

[Marko]

WOW MA - I'm so sorry for others that have suffered. glad it seems like you will get through this. Sending good vibes your way :goodvibes

Shots 3, 4, and 5 in post 8 are very powerful and very well captured.

[aubintbay]

Wow!! That certainly is getting close to home. I hope all goes well for you. Good luck.

[Mad Aussie]

We are fine here. We live on the northern outskirts of Brisbane and the river that broke the other day was due to very heavy rainfall for weeks. The rain has settled now and the Brisbane river is too far away to affect us here. Having said that, my work by day is right on the edge of the current flood waters. Looking at the flood maps this morning (it's 5.24am as I type) the water is within 2 metres of the carpark at work. I really have to go to work today because we are finishing a TV set for one of the big stations here and we have to install it on Sunday. I guess we'll post a watch on the water outside while we work in the sheds on this set.

Yesterday I had to travel to the Gold Coast (south of Brisbane) and we got back and over the Brisbane river about 2 hours before they closed our access back across off. I think there's access again today but it would have been a crap night if we hadn't gotten back over.

This morning, just now actually, we were watching on TV a tugboat guiding a 100m long x approx 7m wide section of floating walking, complete with lamp posts attached etc down the river to miss the Gateway Bridges. The gateway bridges are huge and would have been devastating if they damaged badly, or worse, brought down.

Today is a king tide and we wait to see what that brings late this afternoon.

[Mad Aussie]

Sorry ... also ... Thanks for all the well wishes

[Michaelaw]

Wow! Lately it seems to be crisis after crisis everywhere one cares to look, strange times. Stay dry and safe MA:fingerscr

[Mad Aussie]

Thanks M. I won't take any chances I don't need to!

[Kawarthabob]

Wow thats insane! great shots by the way. On another note you could make some coin from your shots to our north american market .

[Mad Aussie]

Thanks Kbob

[Michaelaw]

I just spent the last two hours going over what I could find on this disaster and holy crap that's a disaster of epic proportions! A tsunami from inland caused by insane rainfall. I really hope this all goes away soon MA. The footage I saw of Toowoomba was just nuts! I don't watch TV so news for me tends to be a bit selective, I had no idea of the gravity of the situation. Ten years of drought then WHAM! Seeing a frog riding a highly venomous snake to stay afloat... now that's reporting! Seriously MA, keep your senses about you man! Hoping all this ends well for you guys :thumbup:

[Mad Aussie]

I just spent the last two hours going over what I could find on this disaster and holy crap that's a disaster of epic proportions! A tsunami from inland caused by insane rainfall. I really hope this all goes away soon MA. The footage I saw of Toowoomba was just nuts! I don't watch TV so news for me tends to be a bit selective, I had no idea of the gravity of the situation. Ten years of drought then WHAM! Seeing a frog riding a highly venomous snake to stay afloat... now that's reporting! Seriously MA, keep your senses about you man! Hoping all this ends well for you guys :thumbup:

Well I DID say it was a bit wet over here M ;)

I'm fine and will stay that way now. Work is ok, albeit having flood waters only a few hundred metres away. My next onsite job is up at Channel 10 TV station on Sunday, on Mt Coot-tha ... if that floods ... so has most of Australia!! :)

[Mad Aussie]

Oh hey guess what!!!

There's a Cyclone (Hurricane for you Nth Americans) forming off the coast of Queensland now! :headslap:

[Michaelaw]

I saw that but thought "Naaa...He doesn't need to hear that right now!":)

[Mad Aussie]

What's another cyclone! Actually ... it was a cyclone that started all this mess in the first place!!

They say it won't make landfall. Not sure how they figure that. Perhaps the existing high over us right now has too much pressure to let it in? Dunno ... haven't even looked yet to be honest. Not even sure if it's really a threat to us at all.

[Mad Aussie]

Looks like the tropical low that 'might' become a cyclone is well north and not likely to affect us down here thankfully.

There are reports of bull sharks in the flood waters also now. Brisbane river has loads of them and this is no surprize at all that they would try to get out of the rushing water by following the flood water into the suburbs.

Snakes are another problem and some people are finding them in their house as they return as well. Some reports are of standing on them in the water and it's likely but also could be mass mis-identification as well. As you can imagine, paranoid about a snake, and stepping on something made squishy by the flood etc can easilly be thought of as a snake in a moment of panic. Snakes are good swimmers usually so they often get away early on as the waters rise.

[Bambi]

yeah I wondered about the wildlife. I'm thinking that the spiders are looking for refuge as well. :eek:

I am glad that you are yours are doing okay. Have you heard from Antz? is he okay?

[Iguanasan]

And I just heard about a 7.0 richter earthquake just west of you guys...anyone see 4 horsemen running by, duck! :eek:

[Mad Aussie]

Haven't heard from Antz for ages but he lives up on a mountain and there's no chance of a landslide getting him where he is so I'm sure he's just fine.

Haven't heard anything about an earthquake Iggy ... and we are Aussies ... those horsemen would get their asses kicked if they bothered us right now ;)

[Iguanasan]

Strong quake hits New Caledonia islands in Pacific (http://wcfcourier.com/news/world/asia/article_f16ea0ff-26cc-58b4-aa93-dcac7c2b74a2.html)

"The remote chain is about 1,000 miles (1,800 kilometers) east of the Australian city of Brisbane." Pretty far away but had it triggered an tsunami since it was under water it could have added to the chaos.

Glad to hear you guys will take care of business. Hopefully, then, they show up there first. In Canada we would probably just apologize to them ;)

[Mad Aussie]

It took Australians over 50 years to apologize to their own people!

Thankfully tsunami's are rare around here ... but then ... so is what we are going through I guess.

It's interesting in hindsight. Many of you will remember me mentioning it has been raining a lot over the past couple of months ... if I only knew where it would lead.

[Mad Aussie]

Seems poor Queensland hasn't fiished it's battle with the weather yet.

Yesterday we had a Cyclone (Hurricane) hit the far north cities but it wasn't a big one. Only Cat 2. However, another huge Cyclone is bearing down on the same area and expected to hit within a day or so. This one was out by Fiji only yesterday, it's fast! It's also big. 500 km across with a 100 km eye, Cat 4 by the time it hits the coast of Queensland and expected to rival or be bigger than any Cyclone we've seen hit Queensland before.

The people up there were still recovering from the floods ... then cyclone Anthony yesterday and now Cyclone Yasi tomorrow. Those poor people.

Code red as Cyclone Yasi bears down | Latest news on the Queensland Floods | News.com.au (http://www.news.com.au/breaking-news/floodrelief/north-queensland-braces-for-cyclone-anthony-as-cyclone-yasi-brews-behind-it/story-fn7ik2te-1225997552623)

We might get some residue rain ad wind from this but I think it's probably unlikely this far south in the state. The area it will make landfall is about 12 hrs drive from us at least.

[Mad Aussie]

Cyclone Yasi has exceeded all early predictions to be come the biggest cyclone/hurricane to hit Australia. It's still predicted to hit the coast at Cairns in far nth Qld at around 10pm tonight ... that's about 6 hrs from now as I type this.

The system itself stretches almost the full length of the Qld coast and we are now expected to see some signs of it soon. This morning they had 50 ambulances lined up at the brisbane airport as the hospital and aged care patients were brought in after evacuation from the strike zone. This is looking like a Katrina sized event now.

[Iguanasan]

Cyclone Yasi has exceeded all early predictions to be come the biggest cyclone/hurricane to hit Australia. It's still predicted to hit the coast at Cairns in far nth Qld at around 10pm tonight ... that's about 6 hrs from now as I type this.

The system itself stretches almost the full length of the Qld coast and we are now expected to see some signs of it soon. This morning they had 50 ambulances lined up at the brisbane airport as the hospital and aged care patients were brought in after evacuation from the strike zone. This is looking like a Katrina sized event now.

That means it's hitting about now. Stay safe!

[Mad Aussie]

I was never in danger. In terms of distance ... this thing was hitting Seatle Washington while I was enjoying the sun on the bottom of the Baja Penninsula!

It did hit land around midnight with winds of 280 kph and waves up to 9 1/2 metres high. The eye of the storm was 100 kms wide, Katrina's eye was 60 km. Amazingly though, (it's only about 5.45am as I type) there are no reports of deaths yet and even though it's still dark up there, they are struggling to find any real damage. When the day lightens up they might find more as we haven't seen footage from exactly where the cyclone hit yet.

It's now 150 km inland and down to cat 3 but expected to reach Mt Isa township, some 900 km inland.

We wait to see.