Floods

Most of you have probably heard about the floods here in Queensland. We’ve been watching the news almost nonstop over the last few days, trying to keep up on what’s happening where. It’s been really devastating for so many people. Before I tell you all how bad it’s been, I do want to acknowledge that there are places much worse off than here.

Like Brazil, where the death toll has risen over 400 from rain and flooding. But we live here, and this is what we are experiencing.

The state of Queensland is 3 times the size of Texas. 75% of Queensland has been declared a disaster zone. So many towns have been flooded, isolated and cut off for days/weeks. Mines and farms have been destroyed. They have to deal with snakes and even crocodiles in the water. A few of the towns have even evacuated, come back, and been evacuated again. All within a few weeks.

Brisbane was going okay for awhile. In order to understand the situation, here’s some background. Brisbane is built on a river. It’s one of the great things about Brisbane. In 1974, the Brisbane river flooded. They built a dam to try and avoid future flooding. Just a couple years ago, the dam was at 17% capacity. Everyone was praying for rain and the city was on severe water restrictions. Earlier this week, the dam was at 173% capacity, and I think even made it up to 190%. They were very concerned that it would spill over. To avoid that, they decided to do controlled water release. The release, combined with the crazy rain we’ve had, and the king tide coming in (biggest tide of

the month) the city flooded again. Luckily though, the river peaked almost a meter lower than they predicted.

As a result, Brisbane is under water again. Downtown was evacuated Tuesday, power has been shut off, and I think over 50 suburbs have experienced at least some flooding. Luckily, we are about 20 km (about 15 miles) south of the city, far from any of the trouble. Most of our family is here as well. Sam’s sister, Amy, and her husband live in Rocklea, one of the worst hit. They’ve been staying with Sam’s mum and so we’re all safe. Yesterday they were able to get near their house, where they met some nice

kayakers who paddled over and took photos of their house for them. They are lucky. Their top floor (living area) was probably only ankle deep at the peak. Amy said there were houses down the street that you could only see the roof.

Here’s their house:

This is their back deck. The water had already receded some. There is a water line about up to the bottom of the rails.

We know we are really blessed, so many have lost family or homes, or both. It’s hard to listen to the stories that are coming out. Men who weren’t able to save people, families trying to tell their children their house is destroyed. It’s all so horrible. But on the bright side, so many people are helping. The evacuation centers have too many volunteers. They’ve had to ask people to stop donating clothes and toiletries as they have too many. They’ve raised over $36 million. Businesses are offering their services free of charge. Neighbors are helping each other, everyone is pitching in, doing something. Hopefully we’ll be able to help tomorrow (I’m sick today). The clean-up will be long, they say it could take up to 2 years to get everything back to normal.

So that’s our story. There is so much more I could say about it all, but this is getting really long. I’m kind of glad that we’re here now and get to experience this, probably only because we didn’t get flooded. But it’s great to see that there is still so much good in so many people.

Just a few photos

		Brisbane floods 2011 VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL