Queensland floods

[croozza Avid PP Poster! Find all posts View Profile Close croozza]

Re: Queensland floods

Latest road info here.

http://highload.131940.qld.gov.au/

[lionel Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close lionel]

Re: Queensland floods

Anyone able to offer assistance?? It's a bit far from here...

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2...section=justin

[RogueAussie Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close RogueAussie]

Re: Queensland floods

I was up driving through the flood waters around Gatton during Xmass and would be more then happy to head back up there to help out ... wish I could convince my work to pick up the tab for fuel and give me paid leave to do it though

As a side note, just found out that the friends we were up there visiting are stuck .. she is stuck at home (on a hill) with the baby and he is stuck at a friends house (i'm guessing with beer).

[stewy Advanced Member Find all posts View Profile Close stewy]

Re: Queensland floods

Brisbane City Pics of River from Kangaroo Point at 10am this morning

G'day Folks,

As a Brisbane resident I thought I'd share some pics of the Brisbane River from this morning at 10am looking out toward the city from Kangaroo Point.

I tried to get into work this morning to make final checks and to help close up.
Working at Woolloongabba it become quite clear that the creek around the back was on the rise.

Some braved the rising creek on Deshon Street.
This is set to rise another 1 mtr today.






This next one was a slightly smaller obstacle - Photo here behind Yellow Cabs at Woolloongabba
As mentioned it will rise here at least another 1mtr over the night.




Shortly after leaving Woolloongabba, I went up to Kangaroo Point to get a better view of city.
Believe me when I say, I couldn't believe the flow rate of water including the debris.




The River end of Eagle Street Pier - under water



Photo here of the Botanical Gardens - under water



Photos here of the road along the River into the Kangaroo Point Picnic and Rock Climbing area - all under water.









And this where the steps ended



Later this evening and Thursday will be a very sad time indeed.
My warmest wishes to all affected.

[Callo Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Callo]

Re: Queensland floods

I don't know about what you guys think but I am sure someone out there in the Queensland or Northern NSW PP community is doing it tough. There is a huge resource of good will and technical skills available here on PP and all you have to do is ask.
If there is anyone who needs help out there just post something up and I am sure help will be immediate and someone will volunteer to coordinate it all.
After the mini cyclone in The Gap a few years back, a mate of mine was in strife and we quickly organised a working bee for him. Not only did it help out physically, just as importantly it helped out with his morale.
SO IF THERE IS ANYONE WHO NEEDS A HAND - JUST ASK FOR GOODNESS SAKE

[croozza Avid PP Poster! Find all posts View Profile Close croozza]

Re: Queensland floods

anybody with either a bobcat, backhoe, or similar earth moving equipment and would like to help with the clean up, email [email protected]

[Mark from Brisbane Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Mark from Brisbane]

Re: Queensland floods

Help will be needed AFTER this is all over...I believe there are websites you can go to if you wish to volunteer your time, expertise and / or equipment.

There is bound to be lots of PP members needing help, but Internet /phones /power is such an issue so give people time.

Personally I lost power where I am for much of yesterday and last night,used the lap top battery for a bit and really wasn't until this morning that we got power back up, and I am not in a direct flooded area.

I am sure there'll be a load of requests for assistance in the weeks to come

[woody50 Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close woody50]

Re: Queensland floods

Hi

My son's business at sumner park went under with 1500 -1800 mm of water through it but thankfully his home which was also in the firing line missed the flood by 50 m with 4 m to rise to get into the hightset house

Woody

[mjrandom Out of control poster! Find all posts View Profile Close mjrandom]

Re: Queensland floods

Our office is in the middle of the flood at Milton. We are on the 2nd floor and the water was just lapping the 1st floor level as far as I can tell. We did the calcs and felt it would be ok. Power was cut yesterday morning. Forgot about the power going out when we packed up on Tuesday afternoon (getting home was another story it was still bucketing down with rain and flash floods were appearing all over the place) so there will be some ripe organisms in the fridges but hey that's nothing. Hard to tell how far the water really rose as no one is able to get in and the nearest viewing point (for one of our guys who lives behind Coronation Dr) is now 60+m away across water. I have a photo which is meaningless unless you know the area but even I struggle to work out where things are. The car park under the building was flooded by Wednesday morning. I caught a glimpse of the office area today on Ch9 as the helicopter was flying over the area. So much water.

Two of our staff are affected with houses badly inundated. Another two were within a couple of cm of trouble too. All we can do is help them with the clean up with labour and gear and some time and cash for what it is worth.

So sad. So many affected. We have had very few fine days since November and it all adds up. I am up high on the top of a hill where I live and I cannot walk around let alone drive the tractor or mow. The ground is so sodden the mud oozes up between your toes and you leave footprints in the top soil/mud. I can't think how bad it must be where the water is sitting and cannot drain.

Years before I was born my family lost everything when the Condamine flooded in the late 50s and I was a primary school kid during the '74 flood living at the Sunshine Coast and apart from local effects we were pretty isolated from it. Years later at uni I met a lot of people who had gone through that flood and lost pretty much everything. I can't imagine what that would be like.

While this flood level is lower the impact will be much worse with building and infrastructure that has been put in place in the intervening 37 years. The media coverage will be greater and everyone will be able to see the damage and impact.

I too know the area in Toowoomba and down the range and the images of those floods will stay with me forever.

My heart goes out to everyone affected especially those who have lost loved ones and friends.

Michael

PS: One thing I meant to mention was kudos to the Lords Mayor and CEOs of the Regional Councils. Tireless work from all, well done. Even Capt Anna has been doing the right thing (not sure what the redhead has been saying, my TV automatically mutes when she appears) but the inevitible politicising of the economics of the disaster will take from that.

[ntp Addicted PP Member Find all posts View Profile Close ntp]

Re: Queensland floods

Just to put it all into perspective:

[AJ120 Out of control poster! Find all posts View Profile Close AJ120]

Re: Queensland floods

Not much that we can do to help from so far away except to donate some cash, the wife doubled our grocery shopping bill this morning by adding a donation to the appeal, apparantly woolies are going to match dollar for dollar whatever is donated through their stores. Hope all is going well for those affected.

Cheers Andrew

[Mark from Brisbane Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Mark from Brisbane]

Re: Queensland floods

My wife and I spent a day today as volunteers helping affected people clean up. Can I tell you briefly that this was one of the most heart wrenching experiences of my life....we were there for 9 hours and helped clean just three houses. Around 20-30 people were helping, we'd do one house, then move to the next and the the next.Where we where (Indooroopilly-Fig Tree Pocket) just under the Western Freeway the water was up the the eves of most houses, so you can only begin to imagine the devastation. To see the entire contents of houses piled up on the road in front of their house is heartbreaking. Today I saw a newly married couples house (married just a week) absolutly totalled....everything wrecked and I'd say the house is just a wreck as well. Then onto an old lady, and this was really heartbreaking....she was balling her eyes out as we chucked her stuff out, comforted by a complete stranger. It's like nothing I have ever done, I feel like I have done something and want to help but it's such a hard road.

What these people need is money, and a lot lof it...so dig deep people every dollar counts.

[geograzza Member Find all posts View Profile Close geograzza]

Re: Queensland floods

Thankfully my family and I got through the Toowoomba flooding unscathed, the heavy rain even washed the mud off the Prado. Unfortunately a good friend of mine down near Withcott didn't get off so lightly with a lot of water through his house, and his sheds totally destroyed. As he said though, he was lucky - all his family are alive, and he still has a house - house next to his was partially demolished.

I went down today to give him a hand with cleaning up. We had about a dozen blokes who worked very hard and got a lot done, but there is still a hell of a lot more to do. I am still blown away by the amount of devastation down there. Cars picked up and sat on top of things, power poles became battering rams, shipping containers wedged in trees, and everywhere is a strange smell that is a combination of rotting vegetation and dead animals. I was in Dalby during '81 - about a metre higher than the recent Dalby floods, but that had nothing on what happened down in the Lockyer.

[mjrandom Out of control poster! Find all posts View Profile Close mjrandom]

Re: Queensland floods

Like Mark, today was helping others. I was surprised at Campbell Newman's idea to have 4 hour shifts but let me tell you after pushing a broom/squeegee thing for 3 hours in the humidity I was ready for a break! The clean up is debilitating. The mud gets moved and cleared and you go back to the start and it looks just the same. 3rd or 4th time around and you are making headway. The mud is so so slippery, like grease. It gets in everywhere. A sparky was stripping power points and the mud was oozing out of the conduits. Hosing the walls gets about half the muck off, the rest has to be scubbed. After I finished in Milton I went to a friend's place in Rosalie and the mud there was definately contaminated with sewage. Makes things a lot harder.

I know of two people who have chucked most of their belongings on the street and are just walking away. The houses they are renting aren't fit to live in so they have made a decision to take what they have and go elsewhere.

It's tough. You see council cleanup days where the rubbish you can't carry is piled up and the council pick it up. This is like that only the mounds of rubbish outside everyone's house is bigger than the truck that is picking it up.

The Council are doing a fabulous job though. By the end of the day the piles of rubbish were diminishing and the streets looking almost normal again. Army guys were everywhere doing a bit of everything.

If you can volunteer then please do so. If you can't and haven't already made a donation of money or goods then please think what you can spare. It's not just Brisbane or even Qld but lots of places in this wonderful country are affected.

Our two staff who were flooded are both many tens of thousands of $ worse off than they were 2 weeks ago and they are two of so very many.

[stewy Advanced Member Find all posts View Profile Close stewy]

Re: Queensland floods

The Clean Up

Like so many here as I read the stories, this morning I just had to help in some way with the clean up.
After witnessing first hand and seeing the Brisbane River in full flow earlier in the week, it was clear that the clean up is going to take some months and years.

Myself and mate of mine decided to head down to Goodna today and assist where possible.
I was gald to see so many volunteers out in force including the armed services and plenty of trades people.
Its amazing to see just so many people just getting in there to lend a hand to those in need.

Although my 6 hours spent lifting, shovelling and waterblasting was small in comparison to a clean up that will take some months.
I just couldn't sit by and watch and wait for others to do all the work.

Just like so many volunteers today throughout greater Qld and the Brisbane Urban and Rural suburbs.
Today I concentrated my efforts on a street off Brisbane Tce in Goodna.

I couldn't have dreamt the destruction I saw today.
But I can say proudly that the Aussie Spirit was well alive and shining through.


The pictures on the TV tell a thousand words until you see it for yourself,..... then its horrific

The mud around Goodna was 5-6inches thick through peoples yards, and a muddy water line of at least 5-6 mtrs - well above most house roofs.




The streets resembled a warzone





One of the homes we worked on - see the brown waterline in the trees - roof height




See the water tank here in the street,.....initially it was found perched up ontop of a fence 1 & 1/2 mtrs off the ground
and leaning against the house we were cleaning up.



Can I just re-iterate that If you can assist in any way,... please do.