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All Our Queenlanders, R. U. OK?


CathyH

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Not much happening in the Far North for a change, but my wife and son are stuck in Gympie, my mother is nervous about her house in Brisbane and my ex-sister-in-law has been asked to leave her house by the river... 

Good luck to all and I hope you and yours are safe.

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I have no doubt that some of the guys wont be checking in here at the forum for a while.  The situation appears to be getting worse .

I'll repeat - If any of the stricken guys need anything done in Melbourne send me a pm . Its all I can do .

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Yes  its bad  all  these  Floods  up  North  to say the the  least  and  the best  I  can do and I  hope  many  more are doing  the same  is put

in a few  dollars  that you  can spare  at  Coles  or next  time you are  in a  Bank.  Hope  all  the people  affected  by the flood  are safe  and well.  And  will    get  back online  when  things  get  better.  Cheers    Greg 8)

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Hey guys, well the situation in Brisbane/Ipswich areas is very grim tonight. The premier said this will be worse than the infamous 1974 floods which crippled the south east. In that year the Bremer river at Ipswich peaked at 20.4m, it is predicted to reach 22m some time tonight. As for Brisbane it is expected to be higher than the '74 peak of 5.45m at the Brisbane City measurement sometime Thursday. But at least we have warning.

Unlike the poor folks yesterday in Toowoomba and the areas immediately at the base of the Toowoomba range. It is being described as an inland Tsunami. If you see the images you can see why. So far the death toll stands at 9  however that is likely to rise with more than 50 people missing in those areas. The sheer volume of water is hard to beleive even when you see it on TV.

As for me, I am very lucky living on the coastal area well away from the river and any flood zones. Not really sure what will happen over the next few days/week with regards to work and normal activities, I suspect its stay at home.

All of this rain and a lot of the water is now moving into Northern NSW so they are well and truly on major flood alert.

To give people some sort of idea as to how much rain is falling, it is estimated that TWO Sydney harbours worth of volume is running into our main dam of Wivenhoe EVERY day. Last report I heard was Wivenhoe was sitting at 182% capacity. Yes I said ONE HUNDRED AND EIGHTY TWO percent. And rapidly rising. Despite all 5 flood gates being open they cannot realease enough water compared to the inflows. 2 years ago that same dam sat at barely 17% capacity.

Wade

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Hi  wade,  good  luck with it  all  up north  also  for some not  so good  news  saw  a report  on TV  that  by  the end  of the week  we  could have  three  states  in flood  if this current  weather  patten  holds  its already  starting  to flood  in parts  of NSW  and they say  that Tasmania  could get  flooded  as well  so it looks like being  a tough  week.  Also  if you havent  already  get an  external  back up  drive  for your computer. In  the event  of an emergency  its very  light  and would be  easy  to take with you. I  got one  a few  years back  and its great holds  everything. Cheers  Greg 8)

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No worries up here, just a lot of rain off and on, and supplies at the local supermarket are expected to thin out over the next week (as most stuff comes up from Brisbane).  Two of my young daughters are in Brisbane (Yeronga) with my ex-wife, so my thoughts are definitely on the floods at the moment.  Have not heard from Frank, he's in Morayfield just out of Caboolture which is cut off, hope he's got his gumboots and floaties out!

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well I'm on the Gold Coast so we are ok however I have to drive up to Brisbane nearly everyday I am concerned that this will most likely be worse then 1974. We are in big trouble up here but we are aussie all of us and we will make it through :)

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Hi  wade,  good  luck with it  all  up north  also  for some not  so good  news  saw  a report  on TV  that  by  the end  of the week  we  could have  three  states  in flood  if this current  weather  patten  holds  its already  starting  to flood  in parts  of NSW  and they say  that Tasmania  could get  flooded  as well  so it looks like being  a tough  week.  Also  if you havent  already  get an  external  back up  drive  for your computer. In  the event  of an emergency  its very  light  and would be  easy  to take with you. I  got one  a few  years back  and its great holds  everything. Cheers  Greg 8)

4 states. Everyone seems to have forgotten the terrible flooding in the Gascoyne region over here in WA and the Kimberleys are on flood alert too.  My heart (and spare cash) goes out to those affected in QLD, including many of my friends and workmates as all of my employer's facilities in the Brissy area were evacuated today, but please spare a thought for those affected over on this side of the country too  :)

Cheers,

Derek

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A few roads a few blocks from where I live is under, but my house will definitely be OK (it regulary floods).  Working from home for the rest of the week though.  Not risking not being stuck away with a newborn at home.

For updated info, the QLD Police Facebook page is updated to the minute:

http://www.facebook.com/QueenslandPolice

Stay safe, stay off flooded roads (think 10 years, not 10 minutes) and spare a thought for people who have lost everything, including family members and friends.

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Thanks for the concern, all OK here.

I live in a place called The Gap, about 10km from Brisbane CBD and I live nice and high on a hill. Lot of people not as lucky as we are here. I assume people in trouble won't check the forum, but just in case, if anyone here is stuck and needs some help, please PM me.

Ironically, the place where I used to work until I lost my job almost a month ago is going under tomorrow... they evacuated todat. It would have been my responsibility to manage that scenario, not any more!

Cheers

Remko

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Stay safe, stay off flooded roads (think 10 years, not 10 minutes) and spare a thought for people who have lost everything, including family members and friends.

The most important message of all.  Best wishes to all, I just watched the 7pm news and the flooding looks so much worse that I had imagined.  I was nearly in tears seeing the devastation in Grantham.  3/4 of the state a natural disater area?  Simply unbelievable  :'(  I'm as far from religious as is humanly possible, but nevertheless I'm praying all of our friends over there are OK

Our news reports in Sydney covered both the floods in QLD and the bush fires in WA. We do live in a strange Country.

At least the flooding is a natural occurrence... the bushfires at Lake Clifton were deliberately lit  >:(

Cheers, and be safe.

Derek

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Ok here too on southside of Brisbane at Rochedale.

Like other Brisbaneites here have offered, if anyone in Brisbane is directly affected or thinks they will be and need asisstance, PM me and I will do all I can for you. If you need to leave items of value somewhere and have no where to take them, let me know. I can offer what small space I have left here to hold them for you. If you need a bed, let me know also, although you will need to put up with 4 noisy kids who have been stuck indoors for the last few months because of rain and like fighting with each other  ::)

For emergency assistance, please call 132 500 (SES) or for immediate life-threatening situations call 000.

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No, we're fine, guys.

The water is already going down, but we'll monitor the radio all night, just in case.

I hope all of the people in Brissie are alright over the coming days and especially during the high tide expected tomorrow.

It's really hard to watch the TV reports about the loss of life and people's homes and possessions.

My heart goes out to them,

Frank

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I feel quite helpless over here in Canada. :(

I pray the human toll will be minimal and that this starts to return to normal ASAP. I hope everyone is safe.

Which organization is most involved in relief efforts down there? Checked the Red Cross and they do not show this flood on their list. A PM would be fine too.

Charles.

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I feel quite helpless over here in Canada. :(

I pray the human toll will be minimal and that this starts to return to normal ASAP. I hope everyone is safe.

Which organization is most involved in relief efforts down there? Checked the Red Cross and they do not show this flood on their list. A PM would be fine too.

Charles.

Me too. My heart and prayers go out to you all. Terrible!

Kind regards,

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Melbourne now oon flood alert. Nothing like as bad as Brisbane, thank God. Some flash flooding in West Melbourne this morning, and it's raining, heavier rain expected over next few days. If anyone cannot get thru to rellies downb here but can post, PM me and I will ring them

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Just a side question, when does the defence force get involved, I have yet to see any vision of any Military helicopters etc doing anything, are the SES and police too proud to get them to help?

They only just announced today that 15 helicopters would be available, i would have thought they would hev been up and about days ago.

I say this because if this was in NZ, the first images you see would have been of an RNZAF Iroquois lifting people of roofs, i just find it odd considering the AU defence force has shed loads of choppers and they are so quick to help overseas. My experience in NZ is that Defence are some of the first to be activated in a natural disaster. The same thing happened in the Victorian Bush fires where the Army were basically snubbed when they offered to help. Seems a huge waste of a very capable resource.

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Dylan,

Where abouts are you?

We are at Tingalpa, just off the gateway. It has a creek that always breaks its banks when ever it rains but with all the water coming from the city it is just making it that much worse. Then Gumdale is nearby also, Thats if you remember the floods it had a few years back.

Interesting that your at Rochedale, Very close to my school.

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Dylan,

Where abouts are you?

We are at Tingalpa, just off the gateway. It has a creek that always breaks its banks when ever it rains but with all the water coming from the city it is just making it that much worse. Then Gumdale is nearby also, Thats if you remember the floods it had a few years back.

Interesting that your at Rochedale, Very close to my school.

I remember around Tingalpa and Gumdale being terribly flooded over the past few years from floods and flash-floods in storms. All the best for you Dylan.

I live here at Mansfield, a more hilly area, however there's a small creek just down the street that could flood over the roads and over my school's oval. Sandbagging is already happening to some of the houses down there. Thankfully, I live on a slope so I'm in no threat to flooding, but it's terrible though what's happening all around Brisbane, I would've never expected something like this to happen for a long time, never expected it to happen before I turn 18. Just the thought that the city is a ghost town, with the Myer Centre shut down, I was there just last week amongst the usual work crowds and holiday teenage crowds, but just the thought that now there's no electricity at all in the city.

Tomorrow I'll try to get some kind of view close to the river and see if I can take any pictures.

Btw, Dylan, just discovered you're a "friend" on Facebook of one of my friends at school and saw that you go to my school. I'm one of the prefects for this year so you'll definitely see me around.

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Hi guys thanks for worrying about us Queenslanders

I live in Tingalpa and with a culmination of a high tide this arvo (Wednesday) and the river to peak at around 4.5m this arvo as well around 2.30 we are expected to go under, also expecting another hight tide. At this stage don't know the extent. However if we do see flooding here this arvo that definately means tomorrow (Thursday) when the Brisbane river is expected to peak at around 5.5m we will definately go under. We have been moving our stuff upstairs since we live in a town house and in a complex and i've been going around to neighbours checking on them and asking if they need help with anything to let me know. Tall all my fellow Queenslanders stay safe all.

Daz

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Just a side question, when does the defence force get involved, I have yet to see any vision of any Military helicopters etc doing anything, are the SES and police too proud to get them to help?

They only just announced today that 15 helicopters would be available, i would have thought they would hev been up and about days ago.

I say this because if this was in NZ, the first images you see would have been of an RNZAF Iroquois lifting people of roofs, i just find it odd considering the AU defence force has shed loads of choppers and they are so quick to help overseas. My experience in NZ is that Defence are some of the first to be activated in a natural disaster. The same thing happened in the Victorian Bush fires where the Army were basically snubbed when they offered to help. Seems a huge waste of a very capable resource.

Martin, Defence has been involved for many days now. Blackhawk helicopters and Sea Kings have been deployed to evacuate small towns west of Brisbane, and provide search and rescue, and now recovery tasks. C-130s have also been deployed for at least a week or two with food drops to northern parts of the state, so they have been involved.

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Let me reinforce that:  the entire population of Grantham, some 300 were evacuated by Blackhawks.  The TV vision has been full of military helicopters who have conducted a large number of winch based rescues from rooftops, car roofs, and small patches of high ground.

We couldn't have done without them.

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Just a side question, when does the defence force get involved, I have yet to see any vision of any Military helicopters etc doing anything, are the SES and police too proud to get them to help?

They only just announced today that 15 helicopters would be available, i would have thought they would hev been up and about days ago.

I say this because if this was in NZ, the first images you see would have been of an RNZAF Iroquois lifting people of roofs, i just find it odd considering the AU defence force has shed loads of choppers and they are so quick to help overseas. My experience in NZ is that Defence are some of the first to be activated in a natural disaster. The same thing happened in the Victorian Bush fires where the Army were basically snubbed when they offered to help. Seems a huge waste of a very capable resource.

[/quote:

more chopper have been allotted today

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Flood alert in Melbourne........which parts Cathy?

It's been raining all night and day and I'm living right next to a creek.

From Met Office

Flood Summary

Issued at 11:55 am EDT on Wednesday 12 January 2011.

The following Watches/Warnings are current:

Moderate Flood Warning for the Avoca River

Moderate Flood Warning for the Loddon River d/s of the Loddon Weir

MINOR TO MODERATE FLOOD WARNING FOR RURAL AREAS ALONG THE MURRAY RIVER AT

WAKOOL JUNCTION AND THE EDWARD AND WAKOOL RIVERS

Initial Minor Flood Warning for the Loddon River u/s of the Loddon Weir

Initial Minor Flood Warning for the Wimmera River

Flood Watch For Greater Melbourne Catchments (Werribee, Maribyrnong, Yarra,

Dandenong And Bunyip)

Flood Watch for the Barwon, Moorabool, Leigh and Hovells Creek Catchments and

Otway Ranges

Flood Watch for the Campaspe, Loddon, Avoca and Wimmera Basins

Flood Watch for the Glenelg and Hopkins Basins

Flood Watch for the Goulburn and Broken Basins

Flood Warnings, Flood Watches, River Height and Rainfall information are

available on the Bureau of Meteorology web site at

http://www.bom.gov.au/vic/flood/. Flood Warnings and Flood Watches for

Victorian Catchments are available on: Telephone Weather Service No. 1300

659217.

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The image of that poor woman in her car being swept down the rivers - one moment waving to the chopper for help, the next she's sloutched on her steering wheel.  I hope she's OK.  That image will give me nightmares for a long time.

Well I saw on the telle that she's OK, she also had a husband and daughter in the car.  The daughter is OK, but the husband is missing. :(
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We live on the southside of Brisbane and are doing ok. The Wivenhoe Dam is now at 189% which is absolutely incredible. That footage in Toowoomba of the massive "tidal wave" going down the main street was chilling to say the least and affected me quite a lot.

A lot of folks are in such a terrible position particularly regarding loss of their property not to mention the loss of lives and needless to say, unfortunately, more to come.

I'm signing up tomorrow to lend a hand with the cleanup. Surreal is not the word right now!!

Paul

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Just a side question, when does the defence force get involved, I have yet to see any vision of any Military helicopters etc doing anything, are the SES and police too proud to get them to help?

They only just announced today that 15 helicopters would be available, i would have thought they would hev been up and about days ago.

I say this because if this was in NZ, the first images you see would have been of an RNZAF Iroquois lifting people of roofs, i just find it odd considering the AU defence force has shed loads of choppers and they are so quick to help overseas. My experience in NZ is that Defence are some of the first to be activated in a natural disaster. The same thing happened in the Victorian Bush fires where the Army were basically snubbed when they offered to help. Seems a huge waste of a very capable resource.

Martin, Defence has been involved for many days now. Blackhawk helicopters and Sea Kings have been deployed to evacuate small towns west of Brisbane, and provide search and rescue, and now recovery tasks. C-130s have also been deployed for at least a week or two with food drops to northern parts of the state, so they have been involved.

Yeah i really thought it odd that they'd not been activated already. But the news grabs and reports seems to have largely avoided their involvement until today which gave the impression that they were not doing much, I would have thought the national media would have gone to great lengths to advertise the Defence force involvement. I suspect their involvement will be more obvious during the recovery and rebuilding phases.

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Martin, I think given that the whole crisis has been playing out now for a few weeks that there has not been a focus on ADF as much because the media focus has been on the current events and what may be happening to newly affected areas in the next day or so. Because the affected area is so large, over 1,000,000 sq kilometres (4x the size of area affected by Hurricane Katrina in the USA) the focus has been on other areas. The ADF is working hard in our region!

Paul, where abouts in Brisbane are you, and where did you sign up to volunteer? I havent been able to get onto the Volunteering Qld website for 24 hours now. Keeps timing out. Apparently you have to be registered there before they will accept your help (officially anyway). I think they are aiming to start the cleanup and request as many volunteers as possible from Saturday onwards at this stage.

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