Severe Flooding Across Australia

[tonydawe]

Hi Gordy,

I appreciate your continued interest.

Since my last update the situation has changed significantly.

The flood waters in Brisbane have receded but have left a terrible scar on the City that will take years and billions of dollars to repair. Many thousands of houses and businesses have been destroyed and tens of thousands of people are homeless and reliant on emergency housing and donated aid.

Unfortunately, just as the flood waters in Queensland were receding, the rivers in Victoria were bursting their banks and inundating large areas of the south east of Australia.

Just as Queenslander's are starting to get back to some kind of normalcy, another round of tropical cyclones are lining up to hit the east coast and bring further huge dumps of water and heavy winds.

This in itself is not unusual for the tropical north of Australia at this time of year, however the ground is saturated and the dams are overflowing, so every extra drop of water simply runs off into the swollen rivers.

As I mentioned previously, the really inspiring and heart warming thing about these natural disasters is how they seem to bring out the best in our community, and trigger an outpouring of generosity and assistance from everywhere.

 

[gordy]

Tony that's dreaded news, the aftermath is equally difficult to cope with. We wish you and yours and other Aussies the best of luck in these hard times.

 

[Wendy]

OzPainters forum is doing a figure painting fund raising:

Here. And more details here.

 

[SRP]

Stay safe my friend....and the same to all down there.....

 

[tonydawe]

Thanks Gordy, Wendy and Steve,

Your thoughts and best wishes are greatly appreciated.

Things are getting deadly serious 3,000 kilometres away in north Queensland.

More bad news for flood ravaged Queensland; a massive category 5 tropical cyclone, TC Yasi, which is approximately 1,000 kilometres in size, is bearing down on the North East Coast of Australia and is expected to smash into Queensland in the next 24-48 hours. (By comparison- Hurricane Katrina was a Category 4 storm)

This storm is expected to bring winds in excess of 250km/h and 7.5 meter storm surges and king tides that will destroy buildings, rip trees out of the ground and inundate low lying coastal areas. Heavy rain is expected to flood rivers that are already swollen from weeks of torrential rain, and large areas of the State will be subjected to flooding for the third time since Christmas.

Residents along the east coast between Townsville and Cairns are being evacuated ahead of the storm and businesses have been closed. The entire State is now bracing itself for the full force of mother nature's fury.

After the widespread destruction that affected most of southern Queensland last month, this is the last thing they need. God help them all.

 

[fanai]

we lift our heads up again and look to the heavens - The major centre of Nth Queensland seen ok but there is small pockets of populated town with 90% damage people are now waking and will know more - hoping above hope that we have not lost another life

Ian

 

[tonydawe]

Great news Ian.

News reports this morning suggest that there has been no loss of life in North Queensland so far and the predictions of widespread catastrophic disaster do not appear to have been realised,although several towns have been hit very hard and remain cut off.

Frankly its a bloody miracle and a huge relief.

 

[gordy]

What is the status of the cyclone ?

 

[tonydawe]

Gordy,

As Cyclone Yasi moves inland it's losing power and intensity. It's currently a Category 2 Cyclone and is expected to reduce further to a rain depression over the next 24 hours.

Large areas of inland Australia that are usually very dry and semi-arid and are expected to get the equivalent of their entire average annual rainfall over the next 24-48 hours.

Amazingly, there have been no reports of injuries or fatalities anywhere within the cyclone affected areas, despite hundreds of homes and buildings suffering significant damage.

Compared to what we were told to expect yesterday, this cyclone does not appear to have been as deadly as predicted.

Sadly, Australia lost another soldier in Afghanistan last night and another one was severely injured as a result of an IED explosion. We have now lost 22 soldiers in Afghanistan since we first deployed our forces in 2001.

 

[gordy]

Bittersweet news Tony, sad to hear

 

[megroot]

Tony,
Just saw it on the eight o clock news. But again great damage on the houses etc.
It's gonna take years to build things up.

Afghanistan: well there is a golden rule: war always take lifes, never give life.
The Netherlands lost 25 good men in 4 years peace mission.
And very sad for us Dutch people: 78 % of the Dutch people don't want to do anything with police or soldiers again in that dessert. But guess what the politics have done??? Yes, they send police and soldiers again for training Afghanistan police, and they swear there will be no war tasks.....
Well, as long they don't have to go, the dissission is easy.

Marc

 

[Dan Morton]

I'm glad there was no loss of life, but saddened that so widespread an area was devastated. It was a miracle that the cyclone didn't take many lives.

Marc - I don't always agree with you, but this time I do - in Spades!
IMO Just an another example of modern (Holland, Britain, the US, you name it brother!) politicians needing a history lesson on Afghanistan and Iraq. Our involvement, no matter how well intentioned, will not bring peace to either country. I could rant, but I'm restraining myself.

All the best,
Dan