Has anyone heard from Wendy or any of the Toowoomba crowd???? Some pretty serious water there yesterday - 8 lives lost and 72 missing.
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Has anyone heard from Wendy or any of the Toowoomba crowd???? Some pretty serious water there yesterday - 8 lives lost and 72 missing.
I hope they are all OK down there, looked pretty bad.
My Mum and Dad are in Toowoombah at present, they went down to my Uncles funeral, which was on Friday. They are at my Cousins house, no power no water supply and no phone. The last I heard last night they are OK.
Wendy is OK, floor in the shop is wet and some minor damage but she is safe and well.
Good to hear.
The flood pictures are quite shocking.
That's good I was wondering how she was getting on with all the rain.Quote:
Originally Posted by Groggy
Hiya'll
I'm safe, sound and dry, thanks.:2tsup: the shed had it's second dunking yesterday but the only damage now will be to the legs of the workbench and cupboards, maybe some water marks and mould on the slabs and the bottom of the plywood walls are wet.
The cbd ( about 8 blocks worth) has been closed off while they work at clearing, cleaning and repairing. What caused it was that we had about 60 mm of rain in an hour up on the range and the Uni side of town (a total of 125mm in 24 hours) All that water ran off into the centre (lowest point of Toowoomba) and even though we had good flood mitigation infrastructrure in place, it just wasn't good enough for that amount of rain in such a short space of time and so we got a wall of water going through the town centre. The BOM said that a very tiny low appeared over the Toowoomba area and it was so small it didn't show up on any of the BOM's equipment, which is why it seemed to occur without warning.
As the rain fell over the range, all that water went down the range, down towards wivenhoe and somerset and so I guess that would be why it was so suddenly flooded in the lockyer....
There's very little traffic noise outside, glad to hear most people are staying at home rather than trying to go to work. I still can't ring out but at least I can receive calls and use the internet :)
We are doing ok, we shall see what happens this afternoon and if Toowoomba gets any of that storm going through lockyer at present :(
parts of brisbane are being told to evacuate RIGHT NOW - do not pack, just GO GO GO!!!!!
west end..... any other low lying areas.....
This would be due to the major storms/rainfall going through the Lockyer all this morning and that they opened all 5 floodgates at Wivenhoe as well.
Absolutely terrible! All my thoughts are with the people of SE Queensland. I have just seen it live TV reports and they are indescribable.
It's very hard. Made harder when you have family and friends in many of the areas hit.
Hang in there Wendy. :fingerscrossed:
Thinking of you all during this stressful time. Have been
glued to the TV all day and can understand the trauma
associated with it all. Keep your chins up.:2tsup:
Allan
Relieved to hear you are fine Wendy.:)
I grew up with almost yearly floods on the Nambucca. I rememer the 1956 floods, particularly as a young fellow my age fell off a local bridge and drowned. Iremember the record floods long the 'Bidgee in the 70s.
I have NEVER seen anything like this.:no::no:
Lets hope we have no more acts of idiocy from people wanting to " brave" the water.
We have put our names down to host people who may need that help. It's not much, but I guess every little bit helps.
Chin upand all the best for those afected. My thoughts are with you all.
thanks Guys.
I haven't heard from funky chicken or baldone. Andy_Mac is ok but wasn't able to get home last night (last I heard) due to a slip on mt kynoch.
More importantly, how are all our Brisbane members faring....:(
Check out this video.
[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kYUpkPTcqPY]YouTube - Toowoomba Flood 2011.01.10[/ame]
Won't know the outcome there for a day or 2.Quote:
Originally Posted by RufflyRustic
Predicted River Heights/Flows:
Ipswich: Reach at least 22 metres (major) during Wednesday; further rises.
Moggill: Reach at least 22 metres (moderate) during Wednesday; further rises.
Jindalee: Reach at least 14.2 metres (moderate) late Wednesday; further rises.
Brisbane City: Reach about 3 metres (moderate) around 3am Wednesday.
Reach 4.5 metres (major) at 3pm Wednesday.
Exceed 1974 flood level (5.45 metres) on Thursday.
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Hi
I am sitting on the balcony watching the news unable to do anything but wait to help anyone that needs it
Hoping that all forum members are coping
Cheers Rod
Watching the news footage is totally unbelievable. My wife's sets of grandparents are in Rockhampton and Toowoomba, and thankfully, not directly affected.
My thoughts to all those forumites who are impacted by this. As long as you come out safe, houses can be rebuilt.
Nathan.
Stay safe all you Queenslanders and Northern NSW too. Glad you're ok Wendy:2tsup:
Tradgic time for everyone up that way.
We're on the creek at Windsor, in inner north Brisbane, so we've evacuated this afternoon. I spent a hour or so choosing which tools to move up high and which to leave to take their chances.. :(
We'll be fine, now we're out, made sure the neighbours were ok, packed the kids up and locked the doors until the weekend. (actually, if it's safe, I'll go back tomorrow morning and move more stuff upstairs. The neighbour was here in 74 and said it came to her doorstep upstairs, and our house is a few inches higher, so hopefully the living areas upstairs will be ok, but after Toowoomba, anything is possible.
Don't think I'll get much work done on my hall table in the near future.
Good luck to those others out there, don't hang around, get out, there's plenty of evacuation centres, but if there's anything else I can do to help, don't be afraid to shout.
I'm fine, I was stuck at work for a while yesterday. I couldn't get past Gowrie Ck (where all the water on the news ends up) nor Meringandan Ck. As well as all of the West Creek crossings. Mt Kynoch was blocked by a landslide and it's the main route out of town. Chalk Drive was underwater, most of the footage you would have seen is of there and Dent St (along West Ck)
Meringandan is fine, we don't flood, the creek is overflowing but no one is in danger here.
I spent the day clearing out a house on Marcia st that flooded due to bad drainage and ripping up carpets at a church 100m from Chalk Drive. The water filled up a depressed parking bay, the weight broke the office windows and destroyed an interior wall as well as all the furniture
One of my mates near Gatton doesn't know where his brother is and another mate at Murphys Ck watched his parents get sucked into the creek, their whereabouts are unknown
That's terrible. My thoughts are with all those who have lost loved ones, or don't know where they are.
Every day my thoughts and prayers are with all affected by the flooding. .
Those in the woodturning forum are an extension of my family.
Asheville, North Carolina, USA
The flooding that's inundated much of south and central Queensland, Australia, is the worst to hit the country in half a century. It was triggered by unusually heavy monsoon rains just before Christmas and has been fed by much higher-than-normal rainfall since.
Here are some other facts and figures from the floods:
1,000,000: The area in square kilometres (approximately) affected by the flooding. That's larger than France and Germany combined and 10 per cent larger than British Columbia.
200,000: The number of people affected by the floods.
10 million: The number in tonnes of the country's wheat crop that has been downgraded to less than milling quality because of rain damage. That's equal to half the country's wheat crop.
343: The number of millimetres of rain that hit some areas of Queensland in a 24-hour period ending Jan. 10, 2011.
150: The number of millimetres of rain that fell in half an hour near the city of Toowoomba on Monday.
10: The number of people killed during a flash flood that followed that deluge of rainfall. A day later, 78 more people were still listed as missing.
22: The number of towns or cities that are either substantially flooded or isolated.
45: The percentage increase in the global grain prices because of the flood damage to Australia's wheat crop.
30: The percentage by which food prices in Australia could rise, according to investment bank JP Morgan.
20: The percentage of all crops in Queensland that have been wiped out by the floods.
$10 billion: Estimated damage caused by the floods — so far.
That is terrible news about your friends Andrew!!
Glad you are OK.
Andrew sorry to hear of the friends hope they find them well and safe. Good to know your safe and active in helping in the recovery efforts well done :2tsup:
I just looked on the BOM radar, looks like no rain in SE Qld at the moment so thats good.
I hope for people in Brisbane and Ipswich that the water level doesnt reach the predicted heights.
Last Friday my Parents went to Toowoomba to attend my Uncles funeral, then they went to stay at my cousins house at Murphy's Creek, I cant contact them. My Mother did get a text message to my sister saying "all around them was wrecked, but they were all alive."
We cant contact them on their mobile phones or land line, so hoping all is still OK.
Edit- I just spoke with my Mother, she said their mobile phone all seemed to have flat batteries when they needed them, got them charged up at a neighbours house who has a generator. They are all well, they missed the force of the flood because their house was high enough above the creek.
She said its shocking talking to some of the locals there, of what they went through, and about the deaths, and people missing.
It is all terrible. Even the people not directly affected are emotionally shocked by the impact. Brisbanites are apparently panic emptying supermarkets.
It must be worst for the people who are unaccounted for. One can only wonder what has happened to some and when and if they will ever be found.
I know they used to say that floods like '74 would never be seen again once the Wivenhoe was built. It is now in place and doing it's flood mitigation as designed, but it is just not enough. If you look at the stats the Wivenhoe is currently at close to 200% capacity. It is not in spillover yet, that dosen't happen until about 220%, it is just in controlled release. :o:o
One can't help but wonder at a time like now that if we had 6 to 10 years of drought in a row, what would it be like to have 6 years of this monsoonal weather in a row?
The American news media are finally starting to give serious coverage to the flooding situation. Toowoomba is mentioned frequently. And the videos demonstrate how people are suffering. One flood was described here as an "inland tsunami with a 26 foot wall of water". I can't imagine.
I do note that there has not been (as least not reported) an international response with aid for those affected. I suspect, since Australia is a civilized and industrial nation it will fend for itself quite well without outside support. But, I am sure, if help is needed the United States will be there.
The thoughts and prayers of myself and all Americans are with those affected by this disaster.
Lots of offers of help from around the world Rifleman: our neighbours in Asia - China, Japan, Indonesia, Singapore. Offers already from theStates and from New Zealand.
So far only teams from NZ have been used to help as they were able to get themselves and their equipment here very Quickly.
Teams have arrived from other states of Australia and the armed forces are now heavily involved too.
In some ways the nature of our populatio spread is a fortunate thing. Such a vast area so sparsely populated means tht the risk of high loss of human life is small.Of course the flip side to this is that rescue efforts are also stretched because of the distances involved.
With 75% of an area of 770,310 square miles (or 1.863 million square kilometres) declared as a disaster area then you get some perspective of the enormity of this event. You can add to that tens of thousands of square kilometres in NSW also under flood.
It is truly mind boggling.
I went and did a grocery stockup this morning and am now in at work. I think i got what was close to the last bit of loo paper in the store. The state of the shelves is what I expected, tbh, panic buying of milk, bread, longlife milk, tinned & packet food, fresh meat, fruit and veges. it's really funny though that the supermarkets are getting so low and the smaller butchers, f&v stores are still well-stocked.
So glad to hear funky chicken is safe and Ironwood's family too. Will be keeping an eye and ear out for any other lockyer valley/ipswich/brisbane forumites too.
Bluegum is in ipswich, MajorPanic in Brisbane.
there are more, i can't think of them all just presently.
Anything I can do to help please let me know via PM. I know I'm along way away here in Victoria but I can organise things from here, through relatives up the east coast as far as Brisbane or business contacts. Plenty of shelter here for those in need, I'd be happy to arrange things, just ask we'll see what we can do.
I just don't get that panic buying bit :~. When the rain kicked in here just before xmas, the council decided to be prepared and started stacking some road barriers at each end of the main bridge - next thing some dick#&@d has started a rumour (apparently using Facebook) that the main bridge was going under that night and within 3 hours, Woolies shelves were empty!!! Stupid part is that even when we do get cutoff in every direction by road and rail, we still have air transport so nobody is going to starve. It was more than a week later that the bridge was finally closed, by which time the supermarkets all had full shelves again and nobody had to go without anything - but a hell of a lot of good food was thrown out by the idiots who still won't admit they couldn't have eaten it all anyway.Quote:
Originally Posted by RufflyRustic
We now have road access north so food flown to Mackay can be trucked out here until the highway to Rockhampton or to the south opens again. Surprisingly, the butchers are still selling meat (but not Woolies and some people here don't seem to know what a butcher does!) and the bakeries are still making bread and nobody has starved yet - wouldn't mind some fresh milk and some fruit though :shrug:.
People are still piling their lives on the nature strips, midges still driving the last bit of sanity from many and there are some very weary souls wandering around but all-in-all, things are trying to get back to normal. Biggest concern here now is that with Brisbane's flooding getting all the attention, maybe Emerald will be forgotten again! The only thing I know for sure is that I wouldn't want to be in the crew that have to search the Lockyer valley for the poor souls lost in that flash flood.
Some photos of my shed.
TTIT, mass hysteria seems to be almost physical phenomenon, you should feel the MCG when it's packed out :oo: you could cut it with a knife, good to hear your relatively dry, I feel for the others who didn't come through so well :(
Seems to be all ship shape Wendy except the MDF? box may be in trouble, what are all the purple balls lying around on the grass :? It's comforting to see crowded sheds, makes me feel normal or something :- Yell out if I can do something to help anyone you know in need, you never know :cool:
Thanks Spring :)
The mdf box is chipboard and it is growing a lovelyshade of green. That's OK, I'll remove the wheels and turf it and build another rolling storage bin. Plenty of timber in my shed to use up :)
The purple balls are actually the fruit of the native tree in the neighbour's yard. I have no idea what the tree is, except that it is an Aussie native, flowers twice a year, the birds go mad over the nectar and when the flowers age, the birds get drunk on the nectar. it then produces the balls or nuts or seed balls which have a fleshy outer and seed pod inner. After a while the outer skin turns a bright purpley-blue. The fruit/seed pods are definitely not edible to bird, animal or human but the flowers' nectar is. The leaves are large, straight and narrow and turn red before they drop from the tree.
TTIT - I have to agree that panic buying to the extreme is ridiculous. :B but doing a bit of a stock up is prudent especially as the StepDaughter is back after being flood bound at a friend's for a few days and you know how much food teenagers eat :rolleyes:.:doh:
I, too, hope that everyone gets a fair go at services and support.
they have started the Lockyer Valley search :(
Ruffly,
Glad you are coming out relatively easy, and I'm hoping everyone on here is the same, and unfortunately if not, safe.
My wife's grandmother is in Toowoomba (the other side of the family is in Rocky - I think she brings people bad luck!). I've only been up to Toowoomba a few times so am not too familiar with it. What I can't find out is, where did the water come from? I did think that Toowoomba was on top of the Darling Downs, so that would make receiving massive amounts of run off hard? Was it just a freak downpour? But even that seems hard to imagine when watching the wild footage.
I love Toowoomba, seems a great place and I can imagine myself living there. I wish the town all the best for the cleanup and rebuild ahead.
All the best,
Nathan.
Glad you're OK Wendy.
The purple fruit sounds like quandong. If your neighbour ever decides to chop it down, grab it, it's nice timber.
Anyone in Toowoomba heard anything of the DNR hydrographers there? I think they would have been working further north until this started, but don't know if they could get back. They'd be out working if they could. Hope they're all OK, some of them are my students.
Highfields has been pretty good but still some awesome rain. My shed got a bit wet,but only sawdust that I should have cleaned out anyway. My dughter's car was swept away by the torrent that went down East Creek, lucky she wasn't in it. We're well and truly isolated at the moment, cant go any direction for flooded creeks. We'll just have to sit it out. Blue sky today.
cheers,Bruce.
We had about 500mm of water through the bottom of the house today, including the workshop, which wouldn't have been a problem - normally I keep everything above waist level anyway for just this eventuality. Unfortunately they're saying we're going to get another metre tomorrow.
We're all safe, and the important stuff is upstairs and should be dry, although I left all the qld maple downstairs, so I'll have to dry that afterwards. Maybe it won't get wet.
Considering the stories I'm hearing, I think we are pretty lucky.
Here's some photos of the upstairs of our house and the floodwaters:
I think i kinda get what you mean, TTIT. The news today was all about Ipswich and Brisbane, but what about Toowoomba, what's happening with the cleanup and the roads, what smaller roads are open where, how bad is the damage, do they have any guesstimate for fixing so we can get a bit of essential traffic flowing .....Quote:
Originally Posted by TTIT
Nathan, I too, had that exact question so listened closely whenever the BOM guys were on TV. Toowoomba is right on the edge of the range. you come up the range and immediately go down the hill to the centre of town, where the two creeks run through, and then up the hill to the other ridge line that I just so happen to live on, and then down again out to the Darling Downs.Quote:
Originally Posted by I_wanna_Shed
On Monday, the storm cell developed very quickly, more quickly than the BOM could see and track, so that's why we had no warning. The ground here is completely saturated, especially after Boxing Day and last Thursday, so when this cell hit us and all that rain fell in one to two hours, it had nowhere to go. It rained all over Toowoomba, especially the range and Uni areas and all that rain behaved as it normally does, down the hill and straight into the two creeks through the centre.:cool::(
Ah Ha, Quandong. Thanks Alex :2tsup: hmm, who says it will be the neighbour chopping it down:U:DQuote:
Originally Posted by AlexS
I haven't specifically heard anything Alex, but if I hear anything, I'll let you know.
The uni has put a call out for volunteers from the staff to help with the cleanup. I'll be going as soon as my boss gives me the go-ahead. it's the least I can do, tbh.
So glad to hear of the reports of forumites checking in. It's a big relief.
Hope all goes Ok for you Richard, the river hasn't peaked yet in Bris, but looks like you got most things up.
My heart goes out to those in the Lockyer Valley, and the others that have lost love-ones.