Answers to questions

In answer to some questions I've been asked:

Q: Once the volunteers have done what they can, there will be many properties needing structural repair or even reconstruction, in many cases beyond the financial capacity of the owners to pay. Since people have apparently not been able to get insurance against an event like this, presumably the government will provide funds to supplement ( if that's the right word for a ratio of 100 to 1) the donations. Has anything been said about this aspect?

A: You're right that there will be a HUGE amount of work for the "tradies" - electricians, plumbers, plasterers (or "plasterboard fitters"), fire-alarm people, etc. They will be booked up for months or years.
There are currently volunteers offering all kinds of help. For example I have volunteered to a group who are offering assistance to businesses and sole-proprietors to source donated computer equipment and help get their IT systems up and running again.

People are able to get flood insurance but many did not have because it is expensive and they never dreamed that the water would reach them. The "Great flood of 1974" wasn't supposed to happen again after the Wivenhoe Dam was built. There will probably also be some negotiation over the cover, as some policies cover for "storm damage" but not flooding, some cover for "creek flooding" but not "river flooding", etc.

Those that are not covered need to foot the cost themselves but I guess that those that are in dire need will get some kind of help from the government. The government and City Council are busy looking at many post-flood issues but I haven't seen any official announcement about that particular issue yet. One of the things I have read is that the council is looking at buying back properties in flood-affected areas. They already have a policy for this in place, eg where riverfront properties are bought back and turned into public footpaths or parks.

Q: In the meantime, people whose houses are not habitable will need to find longer term accommodation. Another difficult problem! Any idea how many this will apply to? 

A: I think the majority of people will have to stay with friends and family until they are able to move back into their own homes - even if the homes are not completely restored. While the electricity to our apartment building will hopefully be restored within a couple of weeks, there are buildings nearby who's electrical distribution rooms were flooded and I've been told that it is expected to take around 3 months to repair. That's about 40 families per building.

Q: It seems surprising the number of cars and other things that might have been saved were left. I notice  that at least one couple thought the upper level of your garages would be safe.  You were evidently more cautious or better informed. Were the estimates of flood levels not sufficiently accurate at the time people were warned to evacuate?

A: We were just lucky. Up until Monday all the attention had been on the already-flooded towns like Rockhampton and the terrible flash flood at Toowoomba. On Monday night, one of the managers from the body corporate told us that the river was expected to rise on the Wednesday and Thursday and so they were going to put sandbags at the entrance to the ground floor garages ("G1") the next day as a precaution. There had been a couple of king tides (spring tides) in the weeks before that had pushed the river up over walkways and onto some roads in other parts of the city. But it had come no where near the level of our building so I thought they were being very cautious.

On Tuesday morning I moved the car out to the street so that we could use it later in the day rather than it being trapped in by the sandbag wall, and JUST in case the water really did come up. I also moved the things in our garage up to our apartment - Luckily I was at home and able to do that. By late morning the water was rising surprisingly high up the riverbank and I spent the rest of the day helping neighbours move goods up from their garages to their apartments and to other garages and the pool room on the second level ("G2"). People had so much stuff in their garages that there wasn't time to get everything up. One of the residents was in the process of moving and had their entire tandem garage (11m x 4m) packed floor to ceiling with all their possessions - Theirs was a lost cause. Another resident was away and the car in their garage could not be moved.

By the afternoon the water was getting close to floor level on G1 and it was pouring with rain. The truck delivering sand for sandbags had got stuck in traffic so we dug up the garden and filled the bags with soil and packed them around entrances. The water was also closing in on the electricity supply box outside and there was an electrician standing by who gave us good warning that the power was going to be cut. Fortunately there was an emergency generator which kept the lights in the garages on and the lift working.

By late afternoon the message came through that the water might get as high 1 or 2m inside the garages on G1, and that if we had another place we could stay we should seriously consider leaving - with the power out and the sewage pump stopped it wouldn't be good to stay there. While it was still light we packed some clothes and perishables from the fridge and went to our friends. During Tuesday night and Wednesday morning warnings were given about a much bigger increase in the river level during the peak of the king tides on Wednesday afternoon and Thursday combined with the water coming down the river, and we realised how high the water was really going to come. The communications given by the Brisbane City Council and Queensland state government were fantastic. The mayor and premier gave live media briefings every couple of hours informing people of what their flood-modelling experts expected and what people should be doing. They also showed computer models of how the city would flood and made available online maps showing which streets would be flooded.

In the end, the water in our building filled up G1 and reached about 1m high on G2 - The level where people had taken their possessions for safety, and where 3 cars had been left in their garages. Many other people around the city had been in similar situations and/or were not at home to be able to do anything.

Another factor is that it was not just areas on the banks of the Brisbane River which were flooded: Places far from the river which I wouldn't have expected to flood, but were low-lying or near a small creek were also underwater. One example is the area Rocklea which is where the fresh produce market is located. It's far from the Brisbane River and is the main distribution point for all of Queensland, and it was wiped out - Dozens of big warehouses mangled, and overturned trucks and semi-trailers strewn about.