Flooding...

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MartyJ
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Flooding...

Post by MartyJ »

I'm sure you've all seen news reports over the past couple of weeks about the floods in Qld, Australia... but I'm sure you'll see some even more insane reports over the next few days.

I've come home from work early today, and won't be back in for the rest of the week as the Brisbane CBD is now starting to get inundated, but yesterday there was an unbelievable tragedy at a place called Toowoomba, about 2hrs drive from Brisbane that was just nothing like I have ever seen.

Toowoomba is basically on the top of a mountain range, so they don't exactly worry about floods, but like most places, flash flooding is possible and yesterday they had the most insane case of flash flooding you will see. Over 200mm of rain (about 8 inches) fell in about 30 minutes and created essentially an inland Tsunami... check out this video for some truly horrifying scenes:

http://media.brisbanetimes.com.au/natio ... 27942.html

I'm fine where I am, and most of my friends all over Qld are thankfully ok too, but we're all a little shaken by what happened in Toowoomba yesterday, just goes to show the force of mother nature.
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Re: Flooding...

Post by Scoop »

Marty, that is just dreadful. My heart goes out to everyone trapped in those horrendous conditions.

I don't know how these freak weather conditions are going to end up affecting mankind. In the UK we've had some really bad flooding in the recent past including a bridge swept away with a policeman on it in Workington in 2009. As you say, when mother nature decides to unleash her fury we are pretty powerless to resist.

Here's hoping that Australia recovers from this very soon but with the area affected being 6 times that of the UK I'm sure it will take some time.

All the best,

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Re: Flooding...

Post by Pepe »

Marty wrote:
I'm fine where I am, and most of my friends all over Qld are thankfully ok too, but we're all a little shaken by what happened in Toowoomba yesterday, just goes to show the force of mother nature.
Glad to hear you are OK in your locality, Marty.
Heavy rain here, but nothing yet to rival Queensland's situation.
Last edited by Pepe on Tue Jan 11, 2011 10:30 am, edited 1 time in total.
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MartyJ
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Re: Flooding...

Post by MartyJ »

Some more of the info that came out of the Toowoomba region today was just insane - 9 people are confirmed dead, about 60 still missing... a whole town basically got washed away by this wall of water flowing down the mountain.

The crazy thing about this is that this wasn't a mudslide, it's not like half the mountain gave way and took everything out in its path, this was just an insane amount of water - I'm sure you'll see plenty of pictures on your news where ever you live, it really was a tsunami, about 700m above sea level... crazy, crazy.

Still not sure about how bad the damage will be in Brisbane yet - forecasts have been upgraded, we're now looking at the biggest flood in 120 years in Brisbane, set to peak on Thursday... I'm well away from all the trouble spots, but plenty still to come.
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Re: Flooding...

Post by zootMutant »

That's just insane, Marty... and so tragic. My heart goes out to these people. Thanks for posting the video.

Help me out here. I have heard reports of an area of land the size of Texas being inundated in Queensland. This suggests a great big lake somewhere. But when I look at rainfall maps, I see huge amounts of rainfall along the coast range and no place where there could be a newly formed, giant lake. So is there really a new lake somewhere? Inland, perhaps? Or are the news reports totaling up all the extra land caused by flooding rivers? So there are lots of flooded rivers but not really any lakes?

I'm having a hard time getting a visual, here.

Thanks
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MartyJ
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Re: Flooding...

Post by MartyJ »

Yeah there are lots of flooded rivers, it's more of a delta than a lake.

Over the last few weeks there has been a significant amount of rain, all through the middle of Qld, through to the coast - the river catchments were just sodden and no chance for water to get away, all the dams are overflowing and the river systems just can't cope with the amount of water flowing through it.

If you look on a map, Emerald in central Qld (west of Rockhampton) is more or less the top edge of the affected areas at the moment - it's probably subsided a bit now, but about a week ago, 85% of the town was under water (it's a town of about 15-20,000 people), Rockhampton nearer the coast is where most of that water currently is. But if you draw a line from Emerald straight down into Northern NSW, that's where all the flood waters are - the amount of rain we've had over the past few days (and a lot of that fell fairly close to the coast - a line from the Sunshine Coast to Warwick), that's the main catchment area for the Brisbane river, hence all the water headed for Brisbane at the moment.
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Re: Flooding...

Post by zootMutant »

Thanks Marty.
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Re: Flooding...

Post by Paul Victory »

Wow, that is very scary. I hope the flooding stays away from where you are, Marty.

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Re: Flooding...

Post by strider77 »

Glad to hear you are OK Marty :D
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Re: Flooding...

Post by andy walls »

Marty,

me and my wife have just watched the footage, not too sure how to put it into words, I hope you, your family and friends stay safe

Andy
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