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

[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...-1225985436806

http://video.news.com.au/1735641410/...ea=videoindex3


Amateur video of the tsunami flood hitting toowoomba
Video: Inland tsunami


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/...ea=videoindex4


A photo gallery of the flooding around Queensland (104 photos so far)
floods | New flood pictures | News.com.au

Photo gallery of the Toowoomba floods (27 photos so far) - AMAZING stuff!
http://www.news.com.au/pictures/gall...5209684?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.



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 ...












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 ...









Electricity and water don't mix do they???


Not everyone was gloomy


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.