Hello from a flooded but sunny Brisbane
The flooding is mainly from the rivers flowing through Brisbane from inland - Not from rain on Brisbane. So it's quite strange to have flooding with good weather.
The river peaked in the night. This morning I went for a walk to see if I could get near our flat but all the roads around are flooded so I couldn't get near. The current count for Brisbane is that 12,000 homes are completely flooded with more than 26,000 homes and 5000 businesses in 67 suburbs "affected" (flooded or partially flooded). More than 150 roads remain closed, thousands of cars and boats destroyed, and the city remains mostly shut-down, with power and public transport still shaky. Some streets in the CBD are flooded, all the ferry terminals have been destroyed, many of the bike paths are underwater, and the trains and buses have been disrupted.
Many of the nicest facilities like the man-made "Streets Beach" (a big, sand-bottom swimming pool) at Southbank, the Queensland Gallery of Art, all the waterfront restaurants at Eagle Pier, the Southbank Parklands, Kangaroo Point park and many other parks are also flooded.
In all of Queensland 15 people have died and 61 people missing which is actually very low considering all the damage - The management and communications from the police and city council have been fantastic.
Here are before and after pictures of our apartment building (the one on the left).
The people in the "After" picture had a lot of furniture in their garage on the ground level which we helped them move up to an empty garage on the second level on Tuesday. However it looks like the second level was partly flooded too.
Here's a video of what's been going down the Brisbane River
http://au.news.yahoo.com/video/national/-/watch/23820458/brisbane-river-will-peak-tomorrow/
If the video keeps stopping and starting, click on the pause button (just underneath the video), wait a minute, then click it again to resume playing.
The river stayed high all day and started going down this evening. But it's when the water subsides that the real problems start. The water is a sludge contaminated with sewage, oil & petrol from flooded petrol stations and cars, chemicals from factories, dead animals, etc. And that is inside walls and floors of buildings and vehicles. Even though we will be able to get into our flat in a few days time I expect it will take a while until all the services are restored to the building, it is all cleaned and the smell is gone.
Christine went back to work today. The Fortitude Valley council building is on high ground, and we are able to get there by car. Christine & one other person were the only 2 City Waste staff members in the office today. All other staff were driving around assessing waste issues in suburbs, busy in the emergency planning centres, personally affected by flooding or can't get to work due to transport issues.
All is well otherwise. The friends we're staying with have a lovely house, and we're stocked up with food, wine and Toblerone.
I've added some more photos to our online Floods photo album here.
Any questions?
Bye for now
The flooding is mainly from the rivers flowing through Brisbane from inland - Not from rain on Brisbane. So it's quite strange to have flooding with good weather.
The river peaked in the night. This morning I went for a walk to see if I could get near our flat but all the roads around are flooded so I couldn't get near. The current count for Brisbane is that 12,000 homes are completely flooded with more than 26,000 homes and 5000 businesses in 67 suburbs "affected" (flooded or partially flooded). More than 150 roads remain closed, thousands of cars and boats destroyed, and the city remains mostly shut-down, with power and public transport still shaky. Some streets in the CBD are flooded, all the ferry terminals have been destroyed, many of the bike paths are underwater, and the trains and buses have been disrupted.
Many of the nicest facilities like the man-made "Streets Beach" (a big, sand-bottom swimming pool) at Southbank, the Queensland Gallery of Art, all the waterfront restaurants at Eagle Pier, the Southbank Parklands, Kangaroo Point park and many other parks are also flooded.
In all of Queensland 15 people have died and 61 people missing which is actually very low considering all the damage - The management and communications from the police and city council have been fantastic.
Here are before and after pictures of our apartment building (the one on the left).
The people in the "After" picture had a lot of furniture in their garage on the ground level which we helped them move up to an empty garage on the second level on Tuesday. However it looks like the second level was partly flooded too.
Here's a video of what's been going down the Brisbane River
http://au.news.yahoo.com/video/national/-/watch/23820458/brisbane-river-will-peak-tomorrow/
If the video keeps stopping and starting, click on the pause button (just underneath the video), wait a minute, then click it again to resume playing.
The river stayed high all day and started going down this evening. But it's when the water subsides that the real problems start. The water is a sludge contaminated with sewage, oil & petrol from flooded petrol stations and cars, chemicals from factories, dead animals, etc. And that is inside walls and floors of buildings and vehicles. Even though we will be able to get into our flat in a few days time I expect it will take a while until all the services are restored to the building, it is all cleaned and the smell is gone.
Christine went back to work today. The Fortitude Valley council building is on high ground, and we are able to get there by car. Christine & one other person were the only 2 City Waste staff members in the office today. All other staff were driving around assessing waste issues in suburbs, busy in the emergency planning centres, personally affected by flooding or can't get to work due to transport issues.
All is well otherwise. The friends we're staying with have a lovely house, and we're stocked up with food, wine and Toblerone.
I've added some more photos to our online Floods photo album here.
Any questions?
Bye for now
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