Remember I said here that because Prince William wasn't visiting my state, it was bucketing? Yeah well, we had torrential rain all weekend. Yesterday we had more torrential rain (155ml in 4 hours), flash floods, and sinkholes.

(ETA: Photos from a backyard in NSW (Alan Baxter is a local(ish) horror novelist ( Read more... )

News: We ask that you all take a moment to put the people of northern Japan in your thoughts and prayers. If you can help out, please donate or find an LJ comm to join and offer your time and talents. Their suffering is horrific and they need to know the world stands ready to help ( Read more... )

For the past month and a half I've been spending one or two days a week in a small town called Charlton, about three hours north of Melbourne. Most of the buildings in Charlton were flooded in January; only a few houses on an area known as 'the hill' escaped ( Read more... )

The University of Canterbury starts a progressive re-start on March 14th. Over three weeks, students will stop volunteering and go back to classes.

It was announced today that 10,000 homes in the affected area will have to be demolished.

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And the area near Townsville in Northern Queensland is under a flood watch.

As we announced, fandom_flood_ap is running a second round of offers and bids. This time we want to extend our assistance to friends and loved ones in New Zealand ( Read more... )

By now you've all seen the news about Christchurch's earthquake - the most devastating one in 80 years.

Watch this space, because shortly we'll announce how members of fandom_flood_ap will be able to help the victims of this event in addition to the (continuing) natural disasters in Australia.

In the meantime, our hearts go out to those who've lost loved ones.

I realize you all are probably tired of hearing about our natural disasters, but here is the latest. There are still floods in VIC, bushfires along the east, and now our latest:

TC Yasi hit last night. Latest on the monster storm

High points:

• There is flooding in Cairns, Townsville (stjra up-dated us until it got too dangerous) and the northeastern ( Read more... )

To give you an idea of what North QLDers are facing right now:

How Yasi compares around the world

Notice how it takes up most of the continental US, except the coasts...

As many of you know, Queensland is bracing for a possible category 5 cyclone, set to make landfall tomorrow night. If you're attracted to pretty colours, check out this site

Yasi could become a category 5 by landfallEvacuations - mandatory in some cases - have begun. Some of the areas in her path have already been flooded since December; spare a ( Read more... )

Queensland is waiting for Cyclone Anthony to hit (up north, by Townsville), and meanwhile another low is forming off Fiji and may turn into a cycloneI am warning QLDers right now -- this one off Fiji is going to be one to watch. Due to its name (I'll tell you in a bit), it will either roar and then fizzle out completely due to exhaustion or be full ( Read more... )