Queensland Under Water!

You are very lucky, Bernieh... my aunt and uncle's farm is completely cut off, they can't go to work or anything, and this afternoon we heard the terrible news about Toowoomba... 1 dead, 6 missing... we haven't yet heard from our close friends there.
Do you know anything of Marguerite's situation? I think she's also far north Queensland, so I hope she's okay.

This is just heartbreaking.I have just read all the latest news on your link,and the Doctor's update on their home and surgery is tragic.I was very moved by the photo of the man in the above picture,and of the snake too.I am so relieved my nephew moved away from Bundaberg,where he had been working on his year out.Thank goodness he went back to Adelaide,to meet up with his mum,who travelled out for Christmas,to stay with her partners family...

We have been watching this terrible disaster on the news.
So glad you have not been caught up with it. Never the less it is always distressing when it is so near.

Hi Pip ... sorry to hear about your Aunt and Uncle. Let's hope they get through this safely.

I couldn't believe the video on the news tonight ... both Toowoomba and Gympie underwater and flash flooding expected in Brissie as well. There just doesn't seem to be an end to this ... it's been weeks now!

Marguerite is safe and well. She moved over to Western Australia some time ago. We communicated just today through email and on my blog ... she's been popping in just to check how it's all been going over here. She hasn't yet changed her residence on her profile, but she's over in southern W.A.

Bloomer ... it just seems to be going on forever. So much rain is still falling and the ground is so saturated across our State and the water table is so full now, that all this rain has absolutely nowhere to go.

When you think so many of these areas had still been in drought just a year ago, it seems rather cruel. The cost of this disaster is just sky-rocketing daily!

How lucky your nephew is!

Linda ... it's quite simply unbelievable! Every day there's somewhere else that's suddenly inundated with floodwater ... and the rain keeps on falling.

Oh Berneih.... its just awful, I do hope things improve soon, and for Pips family too

I found an old friend on Facebook today. We'd had no contact in several years then I opened an account on Facebook & within a couple of days he had found me. When we last had communication he was living & teaching in Tokyo, Japan! Now he is living in a little "hamlet" called Plainland, very close to Toowoomba, in Queensland.

He posted a link to the flooding happening there & I've copied to put on here:

http://www.smh.com.au/environment/weather/fears-for-mother-and-child-in-toowoomba-deluge-20110110-19kti.html?from=smh_sb

He hasn't suffered flooding - yet, but he fears it may happen where he is if it continues to rain much more. It had been raining there today.

Please let there be an end to all this destruction,and suffering soon.We moan about snow and ice here,but its nothing to what your country is going through...

I'm so glad to hear the Marguerite is ok! I haven't been in contact with her for a while.
The death toll in Toowoomba is rising and we still haven't heard from our friends...

i hope it comes to an end soon for all, and the authorities come up with the help people will need as soon as possible ..
i hope your friends are ok Pip..

Take care Bernieh. x

I agree with you Bernieh so sad to watch a man cry it must be heart renching like you said about this photo from your link blog.

Men do cry 6d. I cry quite often in private, I don't mean to sound as if I'm having a little rant or anything, but we are quite sensitive really, well I am. X

lol Martin you big softie..:o)))

Balcony ... it was lovely to hear you had found an old friend. I do hope he's OK. Have you heard about yesterday's extreme weather event in Toowoomba and the surrounding Lockyear River valley? It's being called an inland tsunami.

After torrential rain fell, an 8-metre wall of water swept through the city of Toowoomba down the Lockyer River Valley. Eight have been confirmed dead, and 72 are missing. This all unfolded after I had posted this blog post. It's just absolutely devastating.

I'm worried about your old friend. I hope you hear from him soon.

Pip ... isn't it just devastating? I'm so sorry to hear that you still don't know what's happened to your relatives. I'll be hoping for the best for them.

I had no idea what was happening in the Lockyer Valley yesterday when I was typing up this post. When we sat down to watch the news last night my heart broke.

Up to that point, I didn't have any family or friends caught up in this disaster. Things have changed now. My husband's Aunty and her husband live just outside Toowoomba. We did hear from them and they're fine, but everything around them has been washed away or is underwater.

It's all just hard to fathom. We had thought that maybe the worst was over. We were wrong. I've heard this morning that the death toll in that area alone is now 8. Now the water's on its way to Brisbane and Maryborough.

just listened to the 7.00 am news and its dreadful, I feel guilty that we ever moaned about the snow & ice, whai I cannot imagine is the size of the dreadful problem, our whole country would be washed away -- and more besides and a wall of water like a tsunami ........
thankyou Bernieh I'm glad you posted this and I do hope you ,Pip & Balcony have good news soon

Hi Pamg. My eldest son has had to evacuate his home today ... just in case. He lives near one of Brisbane's low lying suburbs that has received a flood warning. Brisbane, our capital city, is expecting serious flooding on Thursday.

Both my sons and my grandchildren live down there, so keep everything crossed for them. I'm tied up like a knot!

I've just listened to the news about the evacuation, I'm sure that the planners will make sure everyone is safe-- Its a dreadful situation my heart goes out to you xxx

I've been watching the news coverage of this dreadful disaster unfold on tv Bernie and had to come on here to see if you've posted. It's a relief to see that you have and that you're ok. I hope that your sons, daughters-in-law and grandchildren stay safe. All the best to you mate x

Thanks Muddy. Hubbie and I are fine as we're up here in north Queensland, but our sons and grandchildren are down in Brisbane. Serious floodwater is expected to reach there on Thursday, so we're holding our breath till then! Hopefully all will be well. Of course, so many people are in absolutely dire straits right now, and the situation isn't improving.

please let us know how things go Bernie

its awefull Bernieh...we have all been atching on the news...im so glad you are not caught up in it all....hope it all goes away soon....stay safe..x x

I just finished posting a reply on your blog, Bernieh, "Slightly Soggy Downunder".

My friend is OK,he posted a message a couple of hours ago.

It was shocking to see a video of the "inland tsunami". The last news said at least 11 people had now died in that region. ;-((

We saw on the news on TV how the flood waters were arriving in Brisbane today. Hope your family are able to escape the terrible effects of this flooding.

Thanks Pamg! We just have to be patient and see how it all pans out down there in the next 24 hours. I'm baking today, just to keep my mind off it all for a while ... that is way out of the ordinary for me! I'm not much of a baker!

Sandra, just keep your fingers crossed for my boys and my grandchildren! I think they'll be fine, but you can never be complacent about things like this.

Balcony, yes I spotted your comment on the other post and I've replied there ... the next 24 hours is going to take forever!

Bernieh, I saw those awful photos of the tsunami today - so much water! One was of a poor person stuck in his/her car as the flooding raged around it. I can't imagine being in such a terrifying situation. I hope all of your family and friends are OK.

I've found this now and had a look at your blog. It's beyond words. I'm not very good at saying things but I hope everyone conserned will get all the help they need.

I just don't understand the world sometimes :o( How are we supposed to cope with it all .....

My friend in Queensland said they had sun today in the place where he lives. He thought the worst was over for the moment, at least where he lives.

Queensland is an immense state - difficult to imagine a state bigger than the two biggest countries in Europe! Even in our "little island" the weather can be very different in different parts of the country, try to imagine what it must be like in Queensland!

Have you seen weather maps of Europe? How in Italy, Spain or S.France the weather may be hot & sunny while in Germany, UK or Holland it may be cold & raining? That I imagine is what it must be like in Queensland! Imagine the poor weather men/women trying to give a weather forecast for a region so big!!! A nightmare!

they struggle to get it right here let alone somewhere as vast as there! and often the big things that happen are still a shock

Thanks Lauram and Hywel for your well wishes. Still haven't heard from my sons as yet, but the phone system is not working as it should just yet. I'm sure they're fine though.

Balcony ... you're so right about the size of our state of Queensland. I don't think people realise just how huge it is ... or how huge the scale of the flooding has been.

Our state of Queensland is around 1.7 million sq kms in size. That's around 13 times the size of England. Three-quarters of our state has been covered or is still covered by flood waters ... and I'm talking about significant amounts of flood water. In some places the flood waters peaked around 15 metres ... in one spot it reached 20! Luckily the waters in Brisbane didn't quite reach the predicted peak ... they reached just under 5 metres.

Good news! We contacted our friends from Toowoomba. They live on the 'high side' of town and weren't affected, although they said the the rainwater running through their backyard was incredible.

Oh thats great news Pip,you must be so relieved..hope things improve for all of them soon.....

That's just terrific news, Pip. As I said before we have relatives who live just outside the city of Toowoomba itself and they luckily had the water go around them, so they stayed high and dry. But, of course, everything around them is in a state of absolute mess.

The clean-up across Queensland is going to be a mammoth job! Such a stinking horrible mess ... it's going to take a while.

Years, it'll take years. We had bad flooding here in 2009 (not on that scale, of course), a number of people died, homes and entire neighborhoods were completely destroyed, and over a year later bridges and roads were still out & cars were still in the streams and ditches where they'd washed off the roads.

Lauram, it's such a terrible time for so many. First the disaster, and now the cleaning up. It will be horrible for them. You're so right ... it will take many years to repair and restore after this nightmare. But it's amazing how people rally together and help each other out.

the media here has been full of praise for the stoical spirit of the Australians caught up in the terrible events-- you should rightly be very proud of your country

Pamg ... I think Aussies in general have the approach 'Let's just get on with it!' But, that said, I think down the track there will be lots of people really suffering ... not that they're not suffering now, but it's later when it all really sinks in that things can start coming apart. They are so many people who are not insured and many that the insurance companies will not pay out to, especially those who live on known floodplains ... they are going to find it very hard going once they've cleaned up! It's one thing to clean the house, but it's another thing entirely to get back to normal life.

You are so right, Bernieh, it will take years & many people will never really recover. My friend on Facebook who lives close to Toowoomba says a lot of the water has now gone but they are now into the cleaning up process.

It was good to hear on the news that the waters in Brisbane peaked 1m lower than expected. While that's little consolation to those whose houses were flooded at least it reduced possible casualties.

There has been no news on TV about the situation in Queensland since a day or two after the waters reached their maximum height in Brisbane. ;-(( Makes you sad to see how the "news" is no longer "hot news"! As the worst is over, for the present at least, the clean up is not "news". :-(( A sad reflection on the society we live in!

I have just had a message from Marguerite who is fine, but they are suffering from lack of rain in the west.
Nature can be so out of balance at times.

Hi Balcony ... well to catch up with the news you've missed ... the death toll now stands at 16 over the last two weeks, but over 30 since our horrid 'wet' season began. There are still 14 people missing in the Lockyer Valley ... 11 of those belong to two families from around Grantham which was completed devastated by the wall of water.

As you say, the waters have receded in many, many places across the state and the clean-up has started. People have been warned about infections and diseases that might be prevalent now that the waters have gone. It's a messy messy situation and apparently stinky. It's going to be a mammoth job across the state.

There is flooding happening in New South Wales, Victoria and Tasmania as well, but not on the scale we experienced here in Queensland. It's been a bad wet for nearly the whole of the eastern seaboard of Oz ... but, as Linda says, over in Western Australia they're praying for rain!

About the families missing in Grantham, the Pastor of our church said today he had relatives living in Grantham who had been badly hit by the flooding. He didn't go into any more details, just asked us to pray for them, as well as the people in general in the area affected by floods.

My friend, who I re-encountered through signing up to Facebook, says he is alright & was a volunteer helping with the clean up in local businesses helping them prepare for a return to work.

Thanks for the update you gave. As I said in a previous post, there is very little info any longer on TV about what is happening over there. The floods of the last couple of days in Brazil, where 500 or more people lost their lives due to mud slides, has taken over - for a few days at least! Unfortunately their tragedy will be old "news" in a couple of days.

Hi Bernieh
My husband has a cousin in Tasmania, so I checked his facebook site to see if he had a problem with flooding.
He is in Trevallyn. It was looters he and his Ausie friends were discussing. As Balcony said we hear very little on the TV now.