Queensland floods

Sojourn · Post by **Sojourn** » 11 Jan 2011, 09:28

Jamin, give us a take on what up over there from local media?
How close are you to the chaos?

Post by **Ron2K** » 11 Jan 2011, 09:51

He's in Perth, so that's the far side of Australia.

I do have a cousin in Brisbane though - so far, she's relatively unaffected, but I'm told that it's rather chaotic at the moment.

Website · Post by **hamin_aus** » 11 Jan 2011, 09:53

I am an on the other side of the continent, thankfully...

Much of Queensland is under water right now.

They have begun evacuating Brisbane this morning and this is turning out to be the country's biggest disaster since the 70's.
The dam up in the hills above the greater Brisbane area is now over capacity and they have to let water out or it will burst.
The problem is the amount of water they need to let out is more than the natural run-off system can handle, so there will be large-scale flooding.
But if they don't let the water out the dam WILL burst and then large scale flooding will look as insignificant as a set of muddy footprints on your carpet...

The local media is doing nothing but report on the problem, so we are pretty up to date. I must say the full scale evacuation of a city is a sight to behold. Every freeway is blocked - they have had to start using the oncoming lanes as well in some cases to help alleviate the traffic flow...

There is also flooding in Victoria, Northern territories and even here in the northers part of Western Australia.

There are some interesting clips of the flooding on youtube. it's so bad in places whole houses are being lifted out of their foundations and swept away.

Fun times!

Siemens · Post by **Siemens** » 11 Jan 2011, 12:18

I don't want to sound like an bottom but that was bad planning from their municipality. In my infrastructure development class that I had to take they explained how to make provisions so that something as such dont happen or at least not to this scale. I'm really sorry for being an bottom about this but I just had to say it.

rustypup · Post by **rustypup** » 11 Jan 2011, 13:04

if i were you, i'd get hold of the aussie PM and let her know - for a woman, she's doing a miserable job of preparing for intermittent floods in the face of permanent dry bouts...

in a land where 80% of the water is subterranean, and with a history of flooding which would make a family of wombats feel slightly damp, this current bout of watery madness could not have been planned for.. it falls so far outside the bounds of "normal" it's tantamount to being hit by a neutrino...

anyone who imagines this sort of event forms part of civic planning has never met a politician before... or en electorate who is being asked to vote on flood containment expenditure, (++tax), in a country well known for being drier than a gaggle of russia... err... really dry things...

Spoiler: (show)

Siemens · Post by **Siemens** » 11 Jan 2011, 13:41

No wait. You can't just place the blame on the government. The regional municpatlity should have made the provisions. You cant expect that the PM should check every piece of infrastructure(or in this case the lack thereof)

Post by **fallen_angel** » 11 Jan 2011, 13:44

Siemens wrote:No wait. You can't just place the blame on the government. The regional municpatlity should have made the provisions. You cant expect that the PM should check every piece of infrastructure(or in this case the lack thereof)

Regional municipalities in such extreme cases of infrastructure modification are subdued to government funding and can only do as much as the budget allows them... So in other words if the government lacks the knowledge needed for such events they will not raise taxes to keep their wrap sheets clean

Sojourn · Post by **Sojourn** » 11 Jan 2011, 14:23

Tnx Jam. Good to know you are out of it.
At least the aussie insurers said that they have enough clout to deal with the scope of the problem.

Sojourn · Post by **Sojourn** » 11 Jan 2011, 14:32

jamin_za wrote:I am an on the other side of the continent, thankfully...

They have begun evacuating Brisbane this morning and this is turning out to be the country's biggest disaster since the 70's.

Which part of Aus is the city so full of expat south-africans?
Is that not Brisbane?

rustypup · Post by **rustypup** » 11 Jan 2011, 14:43

Sojourn wrote:At least the aussie insurers said that they have enough clout to deal with the scope of the problem.

sounds like someone forgot to remind them that XXXX, (that's aussie for "beer"), is from queensland.. i'm not sure they've budgeted accurately for the impact diminishing beer supplies will have on the locals...

Website · Post by **hamin_aus** » 11 Jan 2011, 15:47

Sojourn wrote:Which part of Aus is the city so full of expat south-africans?
Is that not Brisbane?

No, It's Perth

Large contingent here - two of them in my department at work -a fellow Durbanite and a Capetonian

Tribble · Post by **Tribble** » 11 Jan 2011, 18:45

I heard about it - people were phoning the radio station. Freak weather.

RiaX · Post by **RiaX** » 11 Jan 2011, 23:39

hmmm floods and mass bird deaths from internal bleeding :/ .... 2012 anyone

?

Website · Post by **hamin_aus** » 12 Jan 2011, 06:00

Meanwhile, in Queensland:

Post by **Anakha56** » 12 Jan 2011, 06:28

Whats wrong with that picture I wonder...

Hairy Ape Man well thats hamin so thats not out the ordinary...

Alligator? Nah its Aus most dangerous continent on the planet in terms of animals.

The Freshwater Shark? Again this is Aus...

Something is not right...

Tribble · Post by **Tribble** » 12 Jan 2011, 06:32

There is a cop actually working?

Website · Post by **hamin_aus** » 12 Jan 2011, 07:00

Anakha56 wrote:Whats wrong with that picture I wonder...

No aquatic spiders?

Post by **Anakha56** » 12 Jan 2011, 07:07

Tribble wrote:There is a cop actually working?

Bingo!

jamin_za wrote:
Anakha56 wrote:Whats wrong with that picture I wonder...
No aquatic spiders?

*shudder* I would run a mile if I saw one. At the house in Pinetown when I was in high school we used to get spiders that invaded our toilets!

Post by **ryanrich** » 12 Jan 2011, 07:55

I receive updates from my family in Melbourne and Brisbane and it's not looking good. It seems it's spreading to NSW now, well not as bad as QLD but still. Not good times...

wizardofid · Post by **wizardofid** » 12 Jan 2011, 10:10

RiaX wrote:hmmm floods and mass bird deaths from internal bleeding :/ .... 2012 anyone ?

Internal bleeding? From what I understand most deaths have resulted from over drinking or over eating.The fish deaths was caused by rapid changing weather conditions.Hartebeespoort dam had freak weather like that a few years back, that killed a lot of fish.

Floods is a natural occurrence and will happen every few years, and was common occurrence in earths history.However man decided it would be a brilliant idea to build cities next to rivers and use floods basins for dam building.

So no amount of engineering ingenuity and money will help a already stressed river system.Quite evident even here is the flooding of the vaal river. About 20 years back people had been warned on building on the 10 year water line not long after that floods exceeded that line and every thing was washed out, with that the building restriction was moved to above the 100 year line.

With the recent flood that building restriction didn't help much, at least it saved lives because any thing below that line would have resulted in water moving at 1600 cumax, that would be a good 10m to 15m rise in water level in some places.

Now if you consider the fact that the river system can handle that amount of water quite easily if not for blocking the river flood basin's, dams, barrages ect.

The idiocy of trying to control water.

Siemens · Post by **Siemens** » 15 Jan 2011, 23:32

I know that this is really bad but the people who made the video sounds quite sarcastic as they say. oh look there goes another one. It makes me laugh a bit =(

Post by **Stuart** » 16 Jan 2011, 07:02

I have good friends in Brisbane who, thankfully and by their own testimony, have not yet been adversely affected by the floods.

Siemens · Post by **Siemens** » 17 Jan 2011, 18:26

http://kotaku.com/5735493/vintage-gamin ... s/gallery/

Post by **Anakha56** » 19 Jan 2011, 20:10

Wow...

http://news.slashdot.org/story/11/01/18 ... s?from=rss

Sharks Seen Swimming Down Australian Streets
Posted by samzenpus on Wednesday January 19, @02:03AM
from the we're-going-to-need-a-bigger-sidewalk dept.
shark
As if the flood waters weren't bad enough for the people of Queensland, it now appears that there are sharks swimming in the streets. Two bull sharks were spotted swimming past a McDonald’s in the city of Goodna, Butcher Steve Bateman saw another making its way past his shop on Williams street. Ipswich councillor for the Goodna region Paul Tully said: "It would have swam several kilometres in from the river, across Evan Marginson Park and the motorway. It’s definitely a first for Goodna, to have a shark in the main street."

Siemens · Post by **Siemens** » 19 Jan 2011, 20:30

I dont know it sounds a bit far fetched. THen again some sharks have been known to move up fresh water for easier prey.

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