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boymeetsrock
Jan 11, 2011, 9:36 PM
Post #26 of 72
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Yikes!! Hope Phil and all his neighbors are OK!
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philbox
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Jan 12, 2011, 7:03 AM
Post #27 of 72
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We are all good, House is OK, all my industrial property is fine too. Down in Tasmania at the moment guiding a climbing trip. Sitting in the backpackers watching the floods up in SE Queensland. I wanna go home. Looks like I won't be able to get there though.
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blondgecko
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Jan 12, 2011, 7:15 AM
Post #28 of 72
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It's completely surreal just how normal everything is in my neighborhood, considering the chaos that's erupting all over. Just fifteen kilometers to the south, houses half a mile from the riverbank are flooded up to the windowsills, and the water will be going up by another meter overnight. About 10k and 30k to the west and north of me the floodwaters are gradually starting to recede (Caboolture, to the north, coming down from its second major flood peak in as many weeks). The Queensland premier has taken the unprecedented step of drawing a line about a third of the way up the state, and declaring everything below that line a national disaster area - an area equivalent to that of Texas. It's not raining here any more, but it's still bucketing down pretty much everywhere else - northern and western Queensland, northern New South Wales (where a substantial disaster area has also been declared, and 3,000 people evacuated), western Victoria, and even Tasmania. So we have emergencies spread over an area at least 3,000 km north-south by 1,500 km east-west.
... and next door, they're mowing their lawn. Most surprisingly, the lounge suite we bought before Christmas was delivered. What else is there to do? We've been asked to stay away from the city unless absolutely necessary. The university's closed until Monday at least. Me, I spent much of the day substantially expanding the vegetable garden. Considering that a very substantial fraction of Australia's farmland is currently underwater and the record La Nina that's driving all this is still going strong, it seemed only prudent.
... then to add to the disjointed feel, the news keeps cutting to the bushfire situation in south-west Western Australia, where there's been a 35 degree Celsius plus heat wave and bone dry conditions for the past few weeks.
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climbingtrash
Jan 12, 2011, 12:47 PM
Post #29 of 72
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Holy shit you guys! And I thought the flooding we had just before Christmas was bad. Good to hear you guys are high and dry.
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Arrogant_Bastard
Jan 12, 2011, 4:39 PM
Post #30 of 72
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philbox wrote: We are all good, House is OK, all my industrial property is fine too. Down in Tasmania at the moment guiding a climbing trip. Sitting in the backpackers watching the floods up in SE Queensland. I wanna go home. Looks like I won't be able to get there though.
That sucks to be stuck far away, watching a disaster in your home lands and not able to go. Good luck, Donnybox.
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bill413
Jan 12, 2011, 5:14 PM
Post #31 of 72
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Phil, good news you're ok. And, sounds like you're prepared to stay out a while.
BG - it does sound surreal.
And, while I'm glad for the folks I know to be OK, I'm also sorry for all the others. It's hard for me to conceive of the extent of it.
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Kevthecoffeeguy
Jan 12, 2011, 5:28 PM
Post #32 of 72
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blondgecko wrote: It's completely surreal just how normal everything is in my neighborhood, considering the chaos that's erupting all over. Just fifteen kilometers to the south, houses half a mile from the riverbank are flooded up to the windowsills, and the water will be going up by another meter overnight. About 10k and 30k to the west and north of me the floodwaters are gradually starting to recede (Caboolture, to the north, coming down from its second major flood peak in as many weeks). The Queensland premier has taken the unprecedented step of drawing a line about a third of the way up the state, and declaring everything below that line a national disaster area - an area equivalent to that of Texas. It's not raining here any more, but it's still bucketing down pretty much everywhere else - northern and western Queensland, northern New South Wales (where a substantial disaster area has also been declared, and 3,000 people evacuated), western Victoria, and even Tasmania. So we have emergencies spread over an area at least 3,000 km north-south by 1,500 km east-west. ... and next door, they're mowing their lawn. Most surprisingly, the lounge suite we bought before Christmas was delivered. What else is there to do? We've been asked to stay away from the city unless absolutely necessary. The university's closed until Monday at least. Me, I spent much of the day substantially expanding the vegetable garden. Considering that a very substantial fraction of Australia's farmland is currently underwater and the record La Nina that's driving all this is still going strong, it seemed only prudent. ... then to add to the disjointed feel, the news keeps cutting to the bushfire situation in south-west Western Australia, where there's been a 35 degree Celsius plus heat wave and bone dry conditions for the past few weeks.
Plant your garden and look for how you can help others ..what else can a person do?
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lagr01
Jan 13, 2011, 2:04 AM
Post #33 of 72
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Holy fuck! Just checked the new this morning and saw Brisbane's CBD flooded and a video of a freaking 300 meter long riverwalk floating down by the river.
Hope you guys and your families are still Ok.
So bizarre that I'm at the same country and my main dilemma is getting out of work early enough to go kiteboarding this arvo.
(This post was edited by lagr01 on Jan 13, 2011, 2:04 AM)
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lagr01
Jan 13, 2011, 2:22 AM
Post #34 of 72
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blondgecko wrote: ... then to add to the disjointed feel, the news keeps cutting to the bushfire situation in south-west Western Australia, where there's been a 35 degree Celsius plus heat wave and bone dry conditions for the past few weeks.
Yeah, and even if there aren't any huge bush fires, water scarcity is still serious shit. We've been through one of the driest winters ever which has made dairy farmers cull part of their heards because there's not enough water. The water corporation is completely frantic, publishing newspaper adds explaining climate change, the decreasing trend in rainfall since the 70s and pretty much begging people to save water.
Meanwhile, in Perth's suburbia land people worry because their grass and their rose gardens won't look as pretty because of the sprinkler ban.
We had two very rainy days last week here in Perth though.
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Kartessa
Jan 13, 2011, 2:29 AM
Post #35 of 72
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Just a silly thought...
Governments and corporations spend millions and millions on oil pipelines, would be awesome if you could just channel some of the water out your way.
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blondgecko
Moderator
Jan 13, 2011, 3:13 AM
Post #36 of 72
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Kartessa wrote: Just a silly thought... Governments and corporations spend millions and millions on oil pipelines, would be awesome if you could just channel some of the water out your way.
We've actually just done something like that (on a smaller scale, but still costing billions) here in south-east Queensland, due to the long-running drought that has just broken with a vengeance. All twelve of the dams in the area are now linked up into one big network which can shunt water back and forth as needs arise. In a rather blackly humorous turn of events, the just-completed desalination plant on the Gold Coast (also built as a drought-proofing measure) is now Brisbane's main supply of clean drinking water since the floods have knocked out our water treatment plants for the time being.
The map below gives a pretty good idea of the situation. It shows the total aggregate rainfall for 2010 - before all the rain that's flooded south-east Queensland. Dark blue areas recorded the highest annual rainfall on record - not just above average, but the highest. Dark red, on the lower left (the area surrounding Perth, the capital of Western Australia) recorded the lowest annual rainfall on record.
What isn't entirely clear from this map is that the majority of the rain leading to these records has all fallen in the last few months.
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kachoong
Jan 13, 2011, 2:52 PM
Post #37 of 72
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Registered: Jan 23, 2004
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blondgecko wrote: Kartessa wrote: Just a silly thought... Governments and corporations spend millions and millions on oil pipelines, would be awesome if you could just channel some of the water out your way. We've actually just done something like that (on a smaller scale, but still costing billions) here in south-east Queensland, due to the long-running drought that has just broken with a vengeance. All twelve of the dams in the area are now linked up into one big network which can shunt water back and forth as needs arise. In a rather blackly humorous turn of events, the just-completed desalination plant on the Gold Coast (also built as a drought-proofing measure) is now Brisbane's main supply of clean drinking water since the floods have knocked out our water treatment plants for the time being. The map below gives a pretty good idea of the situation. It shows the total aggregate rainfall for 2010 - before all the rain that's flooded south-east Queensland. Dark blue areas recorded the highest annual rainfall on record - not just above average, but the highest. Dark red, on the lower left (the area surrounding Perth, the capital of Western Australia) recorded the lowest annual rainfall on record. What isn't entirely clear from this map is that the majority of the rain leading to these records has all fallen in the last few months.
That's a crazy map, BG. Something I don't think I've seen in a very long time. It's not a typical rainfall chart for Australia that's for sure. Much of the country, if you look at the last 20 years should most likely be shades of red. It's so insane to even think about.
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blondgecko
Moderator
Jan 13, 2011, 11:33 PM
Post #38 of 72
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kachoong wrote: blondgecko wrote: Kartessa wrote: Just a silly thought... Governments and corporations spend millions and millions on oil pipelines, would be awesome if you could just channel some of the water out your way. We've actually just done something like that (on a smaller scale, but still costing billions) here in south-east Queensland, due to the long-running drought that has just broken with a vengeance. All twelve of the dams in the area are now linked up into one big network which can shunt water back and forth as needs arise. In a rather blackly humorous turn of events, the just-completed desalination plant on the Gold Coast (also built as a drought-proofing measure) is now Brisbane's main supply of clean drinking water since the floods have knocked out our water treatment plants for the time being. The map below gives a pretty good idea of the situation. It shows the total aggregate rainfall for 2010 - before all the rain that's flooded south-east Queensland. Dark blue areas recorded the highest annual rainfall on record - not just above average, but the highest. Dark red, on the lower left (the area surrounding Perth, the capital of Western Australia) recorded the lowest annual rainfall on record. What isn't entirely clear from this map is that the majority of the rain leading to these records has all fallen in the last few months. That's a crazy map, BG. Something I don't think I've seen in a very long time. It's not a typical rainfall chart for Australia that's for sure. Much of the country, if you look at the last 20 years should most likely be shades of red. It's so insane to even think about.
Just to make sure I'm not misleading anyone, the colour at any point on the map above denotes the amount of rainfall relative to historical records at that point. The map of absolute rainfall for the same period looks like this:
which is still highly unusual.
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philbox
Moderator
Jan 14, 2011, 6:05 AM
Post #39 of 72
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We flew over Central Oz about 3 months ago and instead of seeing red sand dunes all lined up in rows all we saw was lakes. Apparently now inland Oz is a green oasis where species of plant life is exhibiting that has not been seen for a hundred years. Same for some species of animals.
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lagr01
Jan 14, 2011, 10:38 AM
Post #40 of 72
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This photo was taken near Uluru 2 weeks ago:
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epoch
Moderator
Jan 18, 2011, 3:21 AM
Post #44 of 72
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fixed!
(This post was edited by epoch on Jan 18, 2011, 3:22 AM)
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Kartessa
Jan 18, 2011, 3:26 AM
Post #45 of 72
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Pretty cool to look the pics... though some swimming pools still looked to inviting.
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lagr01
Jan 18, 2011, 3:32 AM
Post #46 of 72
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I find the idea of 4 meter saltwater crocs swimming around the streets scarier than bull sharks.
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blondgecko
Moderator
Jan 18, 2011, 3:43 AM
Post #47 of 72
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Oh yes - the Brisbane River is bull shark central - even if the water was clean, you would not want to swim in it.
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blondgecko
Moderator
Jan 29, 2011, 5:42 AM
Post #48 of 72
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So, the estimated damage bill for the floods stands at a few billion dollars. Many people have yet to finish cleaning up, and now it looks like we're right back in the firing line again:
Category 1 cyclone (hurricane to you Yanks) hitting Perth (far southwest) tomorrow - at least that should put paid to the bushfire conditions for a while. Another Cat 1 cyclone hitting the central Queensland coast on Monday, and expected to push rain conditions far inland. Then, the tropical low that's currently sitting out near Fiji is expected to follow more or less the same path, and come in as a category 3 just 3-4 days later.
Yeah, next week's going to be pretty... interesting.
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blondgecko
Moderator
Jan 31, 2011, 9:48 PM
Post #50 of 72
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Not much to prepare for here in Brisbane - it's tracking too far north to cause any wind damage here. The rain it brings might be problematic... But it's north Queensland that's bearing the brunt this time.
It's one whopper of a storm, though - authorities are speculating that it may be Queensland's biggest cyclone in history (in extent, if not in intensity). It's also expected to punch a long way inland before decaying. The annoying thing is that it's heading straight for the portion of Queensland's farmland that wasn't wiped out by the floods just past.
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