Flooding in Australia

Sounds like it is pretty severe still, though I heard on an Australian news station the flood has reached its highest level and is expected to recede now.

Just a shout out to all the Australian geeks and a prayer you and yours are staying safe.

 

I will second that.
I hope you all stay dry and safe.

Flooding is not the first thing that comes to mind when you think of Oz, it's supposed to be sunshine and barbies.

 

Well, it's all tropical cyclones wind and rain, a.t.m. Not too bad here on the west coast, just one cyclone hovering in the north-west causing cool weather and wind, which I'm not complaining about.

I'm about 3,000 miles from Queensland - so no risks of flooding here. Just multiple fire outbreaks, many due to arsonists....Grrr!!!:mad
The floods in QLD. are pretty serious, though. More info here:-


http://alwaysbreakingnews.blogspot.com/2011/01/australias-queensland-faces-biblical.html

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/br...death-toll-to-15/story-e6frf7jx-1225987202936

15 dead and 61 missing so far. This is definitely a major flood.

Back in W.A.:-The township of Lake Clifton is still in lockdown, after a huge fire - courtesy of an arsonist!:mad

http://www.stuff.co.nz/world/australia/4531350/Lake-Clifton-still-in-lockdown

 

Much of the loss unfortunately can be attributed to a slackening of building standards. There was a style of home called the Queenslander, easy to recognise because the house sat high on stilts to escape floodwaters. A lot of housing over the last 10-20 years sits at ground level on concrete slabs.

 

In Queensland, my state, the area in flood is the size of Texas, (USA) or Germany and France combined.

I am 1,000+ miles north of the flood area, thank goodness. :major
We are getting plenty of rain at the moment, but this is our "Wet" season, so we expect it at this time of year.

The Weather Bureau expect 5 of the Aussie Eastern states to be in flood soon. That is nearly half the land area of OZ.

Cairns is cut off from down South (usual at this time of year) so food is gradually running out. Just now I have heard that food flights are being flown into Townsville (200 miles South of us) and will be re-distributed, by road, to us and other towns.

Brisbane, the capital of Queensland, and other towns in the SE corner of Queensland are really in dire straights. 15 dead, 60+ missing and grave fears held for 15+ of those missing.

It will take years to get some of these places back to "normal".
Lots of farmers have lost their crops, or livestock, and all prices are expected to rise for at least one or two seasons.

Coal, one of our major exports, is losing hundreds of millions of Export dollars, with force majeure (Act of God) being declared ATM.

2, possibly 3, cyclones around, or near OZ, on the East Coast or West coast, to add to possible dangers.

Paints a bleak picture, but we Aussies will overcome.

Bazza

 

As Private Fumbler said, houses on concrete slabs, in flood prone areas, are not a real smart design. The real blame must be sheeted home to Councils that allow/allowed building in flood prone areas. Still happening today.:cry

Unfortunately, in the early days of settlement, many towns were built on river/creek banks for convenience. Not much thought given to flooding in those days.

Bazza

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I just heard on our News that 1 body was found 80 kms (50 miles) from where he was reported missing. :cry
Such is the volume and speed of the flood waters in some areas.

I am sure some of you have seen replays of cars being swept down streets (now rivers) as if they were toys.

Bazza

 

Explain where Toowoomba is for those Geographically Lost.

Looks like the same Range Rover at the end that the guy put in 4WD and moved...LOL

(I know it is NW)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kYUpkPTcqPY

 

BOOM, I think the vehicle (4WD) is an older model Toyota Land Cruiser that you had to manually lock in the front wheel hubs to get 4WD.

As for the map, check out http://www.planetware.com/map/queensland-map-aus-aus230_n.htm for Toowoomba, and BRISBANE (Capital city).
If you scroll down to place Brisbane in the lower right corner, you will see Toowoomba due west of Brisbane, and Cairns (my home city) at the top right.

Bazza

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Yeah Bazzas right about the Hubs ... I always laugh at the Audio to that video of the lady saying hes letting the air out his tired saying it will sink LOL

But yeah, the statistics haven't changed yet, 15 dead, 61 missing, 75% of Australias second largest state declared a disaster zone, luckily I've missed it, (400-500kms North of the first affected zone), I'm actually between Bazza and it so yeah ... but there are some pretty unreal stories going around about it. A four year old fell in the water while being rescued and drowned, another 13 year old saved his younger brother before being swept away. Strangely enough, Toowoomba one of the worst affected areas, is actually 700m above sea level, which is why its so strange they had a flood. But I guess anything is possible when it comes to mother nature. There was actually an are that wasn't directly affected by the flood, but indirectly, supplies were cut off to the area and as a result, their local supermarket was rationing supplies, one of the limitations was 2 loaves of bread per day per famly. One lady wanted to buy 6 loaves and they wouldn't let her. She threw them on the ground stomped on em and wrecked em and said, "If I can't have them, no one can!" and stormed out!

As I said to in another post just recently, strangely enough it's affecting everywhere at the moment, South Australia is flooded, Northern New South Wales is flooded, Victoria is flooded and Tasmania is flooded as well as Queensland (altough Queensland has been hit the worst), bushfires in Western Australia, around here its almost as if Armageddon is coming ... wierd with birds dropping from the sky and fish turning up dead around the world ...

... but, Yeah some unreal happenings in Australia at the moment ...

 

*UPDATE*

16 Now dead 61 Still Missing

 

The lady is obviously too young to remember that in the older 4WD's, you had to get out of the vehicle to set the hubs to engage 4WD. LOL

If she had thought a bit more, it is usually easier to use 2 hands to let out air in tyres. (OZ spelling ) As the driver is also using an umbrella to keep the rain off, he would need 3 hands. :-D

Bazza

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Heyyyyy I'm 19 and I still know what it means to manually engage your hubs!!! cool

Oh and yeah I must admit, that's quite funny as well, the fella is standing knee deep in water and hes holding an umbrella above his head to keep the rain off *facepalm* MG needs a facepalm emote!!

 

Glad to know Bazza is well and not one of the victums.

 

LOL

Bazza

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Ehhhh doesn't quite have the effect I'm after, thanks anyway Tim!! :major

 

My apologies to Gregoryno6. It was his post about concrete slabs.
:-o :-o:-o

Bazza

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Hey all you Auzzies where is Adelaide in alll this, what i mean, is it very far from all this, as my wifes aunt lives there !

P.S Sad wasn't the word when we watched on TV the 13yr old boy, who said, to save his 10 yr old brother first in Toowoomba, Queensland ! :cry:cry:cry:cry:cry:cry:cry:cry

http://current.com/news/92919547_13-year-old-boy-drowns-after-begging-rescuers-to-save-10-year-old-brother-first.htm

 

Here's the interview with one of the rescuers ! :cry:cry:cry:cry:cry:cry:cry:cry

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TWdqwkKFfrE&feature=player_embedded#!

Please take time out and say a prayer for this brave little boy ! :heart:heart

 

Here in Belgium a town called Gerardsbergen is on the flood plain and last night on TV the Mayor was trying to explain why they allowed building of new homes on the flood plain that have just been flooded for the second time in 8 weeks, he was a bumbling idiot with no valid excuse.

p.s. Here your insurance is void on the flood plain (but they were happy to take the money from house owners)

 

Adelaide is fine, with a max temp. of 25.

http://www.weatherchannel.com.au/australian-forecasts/sa/adelaide-metro

They're actually having some nice weather, a.t.m.

http://www.timeanddate.com/weather/australia/adelaide


Adelaide is on the south coast, about 2,000 miles from me in the west and about 1,000 miles from Melbourne, so it's way out of harms way.

 

Cheers Phantom, will let her indoors know !

 

To non-Celsius users, 25 is 25°C, or 77°F. :-D

Bazza

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Billy was at school this morning and the teacher asked all the children what their fathers did for a living.

All the typical answers came out, fireman, policeman, salesman, chippy, captains of industry etc, but Billy was being uncharacteristically quiet and so the teacher asked him about his father.

"My father is an exotic dancer in a gay club and takes off all his clothes in front of other men. Sometimes if the offer is really good, he'll go out with a man, rent a cheap hotel room and let them sleep with him."

The teacher quickly set the other children some work and took little Billy aside to ask him if that was really true.

"No" said Billy, "He plays cricket for Australia but I was just too embarrassed to say."

:-D:-D

 

That mayor is going to have company in Qld soon, and plenty of it.

The Fat Aussie Bastard's youtube rants about shops charging extortionate prices for bread and milk are worth a look. NSFW warning! F-bombs fall thick and fast.

 

LOL that actually cracked me up dave, Dad might have taken offense to that but I'm not really into cricket so ...

 

That's a beauty Dave ! roflmaoroflmaoroflmaoroflmaoroflmao

 

What about a "Clicks for Australia" campaign?

When you download software, there is an Australian mirror. How about a little charity drive, by clicking on, and downloading from their mirror?

 

We must remember that Queensland is not the only OZ state in Flood.
And don't forget the 600+ deaths from flooding in Brazil :cry

Check out Google for links to Floods Queensland OR Victoria OR Brazil
http://www.google.com/search?q=Floo...il&hl=en&num=10&lr=&ft=i&cr=&safe=images&tbs=

Appeal links cited.

Bazza

 

Yeah massive flooding in Victoria, Little bits here and there in Northern NSW and flash flooding almost subsided I believe in Tasmania, most of the flooding in QLD has dissipated however where i just lived we got this wicked storm that lasted about half an hour crapload of lightning strikes, Cyclonic speed winds and heaps of rain, plus I believe that Rockhampton is having moderate flooding again as result of a heap of rain they have just received. Last I checked there were 20 dead in QLD.

http://www.gattonstar.com.au/story/2011/01/18/a-tragedy-emergency-situation/

 

So much stormy atmosphere around us, in Cairns last night, that the cordless phone reception was hopeless. I even unplugged power to my laptop, just in case.

Stupid me, I didn't unplug telephone power input to my modem, though. :-o
Should've done that as well.

Bazza

 

Lol, well Bazza I dunno if you'll get it up there but my colleague who's actually our Telstra Rep is a bit of a Storm Chaser and is tipping two cyclones within the next week or two, possibly a third, the modelling is saying that the first should cross around Mackay and the second near Brisbane. So ... yeah we may be in for more yet.

 

If you look closely in the first one, two cyclones are predicted to cross the cost with a possible third forming. In the second, there's much less devastation predicted with just a single cyclone crossing at around the Brisbane area.

http://i903.photobucket.com/albums/ac231/queenslander88/ExtGFS2011011912.gif

Projection from whats called a GFS modeling system.

http://i903.photobucket.com/albums/ac231/queenslander88/ECMWF2011011912.gif

Projection from whats called a ECMWF modeling system.

 

Bazza, need UPS backup. Forget brown, they can't help in a power failure...

:major

 

Lol I was gonna get a used 10000kva UPS off a mate who runs our Council IT department round here, but it hard to be hard wired so I decided I'd better not.

I was thinkin I could keep my computer runnin for days

Quick question of something I'm not sure of.

If the whole areas power gets cut off, including at the exchange, do the phones and internet still work (if I've got a UPS or Generator for the PC and modem?)

 

AFAIK, only the old fashioned phones (not the cordless ones) work if the power goes off, and that is for a limited time, I think.

I don't know if "I've got a UPS or Generator for the PC and modem". :confused
UPS's are usually only for use so you can close down your computer nicely, at least the cheaper models only have a "life" of minutes. A generator might/will change all that.

Bazza

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But aren't they only the little 400VAs etc?? My mate runs our councils IT department and they had a few really big UPS's that were 1000 or maybe 10000KVA (cant remember) that they used to keep their servers alive ... wouldn't one of those last for ages?

 

Sorry mate, you're getting far above my level of knowledge.
As I said most small capacity UPS's only are rated for "minutes" support.
You'll have to ask a "lecky" about much higher rated UPS's. :-D

Bazza

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Ahh okay, will do!!