It's raining, it's pouring... AGAIN.
Heh. I only ever seem to post when it's been raining.
It's barely stopped raining since Christmas. Three-quarters of Queensland have been declared a disaster zone due to massive rainfalls and flooding. I've been listening to the radio and watching the news on TV and the 'net, and all the stories and reports are just heartbreaking. Ten, possibly eleven people dead so far, including several children, and anywhere between fifty to over seventy people still missing. People who are still recovering from floods a year ago, or even just two weeks ago, being wiped out again. Footage of people stranded on the roofs of their cars or houses, streets awash, cars and trucks and shipping containers being swept away. A flash flood sweeping without warning through Toowoomba and into the Lockyer Valley being described as an 'inland tsunami'. Stories of losses and rescues and people just... standing strong, refusing to give up, and keeping a sense of humour despite everything.
And more's still to come as it continues raining and all the water keeps moving downstream. The lower parts of Brisbane have already begun evacuating as the Brisbane River's expected to rise even further over the next couple of days, especially with a king tide coming soon. The river's already broken its banks in parts, and is expected to exceed the old Brisbane flood records of 1974. Wivenhoe, the main dam that's kept the city safe from flooding for the past few weeks is overfull, and the operators have had to keep releasing larger and larger amounts of water because even more is on the way.
On the bright side, there hasn't been any particularly violent storms or strong winds like the ones that happened a couple of years ago. Flood damage is bad enough without also getting trees blown through buildings and roofs torn off.
I feel so lucky to be in an area that's relatively safe from flooding, and we got the drainage mostly fixed so I'm only getting a little bit of water puddling on the floor downstairs, instead of most of the floor being covered like the last few times we've had heavy rain. Hopefully we'll keep dry, and hopefully the rain will ease up and give the rest of my state time to recover and prepare.
No matter what happens though, we're Aussies, and we'll pull through.
Queensland Flood Relief Appeal
It's barely stopped raining since Christmas. Three-quarters of Queensland have been declared a disaster zone due to massive rainfalls and flooding. I've been listening to the radio and watching the news on TV and the 'net, and all the stories and reports are just heartbreaking. Ten, possibly eleven people dead so far, including several children, and anywhere between fifty to over seventy people still missing. People who are still recovering from floods a year ago, or even just two weeks ago, being wiped out again. Footage of people stranded on the roofs of their cars or houses, streets awash, cars and trucks and shipping containers being swept away. A flash flood sweeping without warning through Toowoomba and into the Lockyer Valley being described as an 'inland tsunami'. Stories of losses and rescues and people just... standing strong, refusing to give up, and keeping a sense of humour despite everything.
And more's still to come as it continues raining and all the water keeps moving downstream. The lower parts of Brisbane have already begun evacuating as the Brisbane River's expected to rise even further over the next couple of days, especially with a king tide coming soon. The river's already broken its banks in parts, and is expected to exceed the old Brisbane flood records of 1974. Wivenhoe, the main dam that's kept the city safe from flooding for the past few weeks is overfull, and the operators have had to keep releasing larger and larger amounts of water because even more is on the way.
On the bright side, there hasn't been any particularly violent storms or strong winds like the ones that happened a couple of years ago. Flood damage is bad enough without also getting trees blown through buildings and roofs torn off.
I feel so lucky to be in an area that's relatively safe from flooding, and we got the drainage mostly fixed so I'm only getting a little bit of water puddling on the floor downstairs, instead of most of the floor being covered like the last few times we've had heavy rain. Hopefully we'll keep dry, and hopefully the rain will ease up and give the rest of my state time to recover and prepare.
No matter what happens though, we're Aussies, and we'll pull through.
Queensland Flood Relief Appeal