Queensland Flood Disaster

Folks, I originally just posted this on the Downunder board, but kind comments from Don Moon made me realise it is bigger than that, so I will take the liberty of opening it up on here if I may.....

Some terrible stuff is happening here at the moment, and there has been loss of life, with people swept away in cars, destroyed houses, and general mayhem, and one's heart goes out to these people and their families.* For a boater, one poignant image which affected me a lot was the vision of not only pontoons and even whole marina berths with boats still attached sweeping downriver, but one of a lone CHB 34, clearly unable to manoeuvre, being swept sideways down the river with the skipper apparently helpless inside.* I only hope he got her running in time to avoid the many bridge pylons he was fast approaching, but his fate has been lost in the overwhelming deluge (literally) of other flood disaster dramas.

Don replied....

Peter,

Oh my, what*a disaster of monumental proportions.* Because of the events in the US, we are only getting a glimpse of the scope of the problem.* It is devastating, and I applaude the Aussie spirit.* I can only send condolences and maybe a contribution to a worthy recovery organization.* If you know of one and where to send, please post it.

Thanks Don. Your comments have prompted me to place this on the main board, as I think it merits wider coverage. I had not thought initially of people in the US wanting to help, silly me.

The link to a site telling*more about it and also a place to access a site for donations is linked below....
http://www.google.com.au/search?q=queensland+flood+disaster&rls=com.microsoft:en-au:IE-SearchBox&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&sourceid=ie7&rlz=1I7ADBF_en

Donations....
http://www.qld.gov.au/floods/donate.html
__________________
Peter B
'Lotus' - Clipper (CHB) 34
Brisbane, Australia

-- Edited by Peter B on Tuesday 11th of January 2011 07:17:03 PM

On the news reports I was amazed to see cars "running the rapids."* My condolences to those who've lost.

markpierce wrote:

On the news reports I was amazed to see cars "running the rapids."* My condolences to those who've lost.

Click to expand...

Thanks Mark.* The following live stream link gives but scant idea of the volume flowing down.

In terms of scale, this disaster is approaching that of Katrina now, more in terms of the extent of the flooding, rather than numbers affected of course.* 80% of Queensland is now*a declared disaster zone, and this is a state the size of Texas and Arizona combined I'm told* - or larger then France and Germany combined.* 10 definite lives lost - over 100 still unaccounted for , and over 10,000 homes will be or are already flooded.

The problem is that the flood mitigation dams built since the last major flood event in 1974 and which have been very effective till now, were somewhat negated this time because of the sequence of weather events.* We just had the wettest spring and early summer on record.* This had filled the normal dam capacity and put us onto the extra flood mitigation capacity before this last deluge occurred.* Then on top of that there was this massive deluge over the Toowoomba ranges, which crashed down the Lockyer valley, taking out whole towns on the way, and this joins the Brisbae River downstream of the dam complex anyway, so nothing was going to stop that.* Add them together and the fact that the dams are at 190% normal capacity, and there you have it.* It is a sad sight seeing al the boats, pontoons, cars and other debris floating down.* Now there is talk of having to delberately sink several large craft still upstream of the bridges because of the risks they present if they broke free.
<a href="http://www.livestream.com/brisbanefloods?utm_source=lsplayer&utm_medium=ui-chat&utm_campaign=brisbanefloods&utm_content=brisbanefloods">
http://www.livestream.com/brisbanefloods?utm_source=lsplayer&utm_medium=ui-chat&utm_campaign=brisbanefloods&utm_content=brisbanefloods</a>

*

Hiya,
** Mr. Peter B.* I know there is little/nothing I can to to help other than to wish you well but stay safe and strong.
** Words fail me...

Peter: *Thanks for those links. *Most of us can only sit back and watch this happen, but what a tragedy it already is. *Even if the guy inside the CHB was able to get under power, one can only hope he was able to maneuver himself into a survivable situation. *Just thinking about it give me the heebee-jeebees. *God bless you all.

How can one cope with six inches of rain in minutes, and on top of soaked soil?* Man is puny compared to nature.

I have some relatives that live in that area. Their last email yesterday*said that the Brisbane River had broken it's banks and that they were put on high alert to evacuate. They said the water in the canal behind their home had already covered the docks and was creeping up the back yard. They said it was getting pretty scary. Haven't heard from them since.* Very worrisome.**** KJ

I just read the web and then news about the flooding.* My heart and prays go out the people and families.*****