Australian floods worsen

[Australis]

Death toll now 15, missing up to 70.

Rivers seem to be dropping, but I'm still a little concerned about high tide, due at 4pm.

His name's Kevin, he's there to help: Saw the former PM helping people move things out of their houses before the floods peaked. Good on him. Unlike Abbot and that Langbroek fellow standing round talking about it and denigrating State and Federal efforts because they didn't come from their parties.

Oh, and Nick, quit while you're behind.

 

[pookha]

It seems that most of the missing are from the village of Grantham. It is thought that many bodies will be found in the pileup under the railway bridge there.

i hope most of them are just isolated without communications.

between that and some times duplicates on missing lists it can be hard to get a true picture of what is happening.
for instance a person might be know by most people by middle name and reported missing that way.
then a parent will report them missing by given name and mass confusion.

ps
in case people dont know.
a text message from a cellphone often can get out when a voice message cant.

 

[Miss Chicken]

It seems that most of the missing are from the village of Grantham. It is thought that many bodies will be found in the pileup under the railway bridge there.

i hope most of them are just isolated without communications.

between that and some times duplicates on missing lists it can be hard to get a true picture of what is happening.
for instance a person might be know by most people by middle name and reported missing that way.
then a parent will report them missing by given name and mass confusion.

ps
in case people dont know.
a text message from a cellphone often can get out when a voice message cant.

There are 12 people missing from Murphy's Creek, 11 of them belonging to either one of two families.

 

[The First Joel]

Rivers seem to be dropping, but I'm still a little concerned about high tide, due at 4pm.

Been watching ABC all day (and will tonight). They were saying it around 3.86m just before.

His name's Kevin, he's there to help: Saw the former PM helping people move things out of their houses before the floods peaked. Good on him. Unlike Abbot and that Langbroek fellow standing round talking about it and denigrating State and Federal efforts because they didn't come from their parties.

Agree about Abbott, but he really arrived late to this. Not sure about Kate Langbroek, as I haven't seen her at all on the ABC.

Oh, and Nick, quit while you're behind.

Agreed. Comparing deaths with this and the road toll isn't funny, nor is making fun of what was happening with the rush into supermarkets. I have a good friend who lives there, and it was a mad panic (well that is what I saw on FB)

 

[Australis]

^ Not Kate Langbroek, her brother, a LNP... insert your rude word of choice.

 

[Miss Chicken]

My niece has been able to return to her house. This is what her backyard looks like.

She has lost a few things that were stored below - freezer, some books etc. - but on the whole their losses have been minimal.

 

[The First Joel]

^ Good to hear.

^ Not Kate Langbroek, her brother, a LNP... insert your rude word of choice.

Ah. Don't really pay that much attend to QLd politics. Been impressed with how Bligh has been handling this.

Now also there is a flood warning for Goondiwindi.

 

[Captain_Nick]

I have a good friend who lives there, and it was a mad panic

Why? It's not like they had no warning

If this were to happen in Sydney or Melbourne we'd all be screwed

 

[Australis]

^ Good to hear.

^ Not Kate Langbroek, her brother, a LNP... insert your rude word of choice.

Ah. Don't really pay that much attend to QLd politics. Been impressed with how Bligh has been handling this.

Now also there is a flood warning for Goondiwindi.

I think a few people have been impressed with Bligh.

Fun fact: a descendant of the Bounty chap.

 

[Miss Chicken]

Now also there is a flood warning for Goondiwindi.

They have an 11 meter levee that hopefully will protect the town. This flood is predicted to reach 10.7 meters which is the same height as the water reached in 1996. I wonder if they are busy putting in extra sandbags along the levee?

I believe that Goondiwindi is better prepared than many of the other towns so far hit. It has had a long history of flooding.

Edited to add. I have just come across this

Records of large floods at Goondiwindi extend back as far as 1886, and since then more than 60 major floods have occurred. In 1956, Goondiwindi experienced three major floods within six months which prompted the building of levee banks to protect the town. The 1976 flood of 10.5 metres stood as the Goondiwindi record until January 1996 when the Macintyre River reached 10.6 metres.

 

[The First Joel]

^ I saw that on wikipedia earlier.

Been looking at some photos on facebook with this page.

Nick - let's hope it doesn't happen. I don't know how I would react if it did flood here. I wasn't here when it flooded in 2007, as I was further north. Had loads of rain, but no flooding.

 

[Lt_Rowy]

15 have been so far confirmed dead and our opposition leader is a total moron who deserves to be hit with a phase pistol!

 

[Jono]

Which one? Tony or John-Paul? (Or both?)

Heard on the news that Goondiwindi flood is predicted at 10.85m, here's hoping that it will be the same with Ipswich and Brisbane and be lower than the prediction and definitely hope it is not worse.

 

[Orac Zen]

Geez, get a sense of humour lady.

Humour in a crisis is certainly an Australian trait, but claiming these floods are "karma" for your speeding ticket isn't humour, mate. Even you realised it. Shame you didn't arrive at the same conclusion about the other inanities you've contributed to this thread.

 

[Miss Chicken]

I am now getting quite concerned about Goondiwindi. The hospital and nursing home have been evacuated. I am pretty certain that someone will take my cousin, Russell, to a safer place. Russell is intellectually disabled but has been managing quite well on his own since my Nanna died. I am not sure he could keep his head in an emergency though.

Another Goondiwindi cousin died last year. I am not certain if any of her children still live in the town. I have an 96 year old aunt in a nursing home in Texas, and her two sons also live there. No mention of Texas in tonight news.

Edited to add - I have decided I am worrying too much. I am sure our family in Texas would look after Russell.

EDITED TO ADD - good news, no bodies have been found in the cars trapped under the bridge in Grantham.

 

[The First Joel]

^ True. But reading about many missing people from this disaster. Here is the link on facebook. I found out there is someone missing from Townsville. Don't know the person, but a friend of mine has the same surname.

 

[Evil Robert]

I came here after reading about SB (err... Orac Zen now) talking about it elsewhere.

I really wasn't coping with the floods at all here in Melbourne, I do feel better now, but to know that your own home town was just majorly underwater really just did ones head in. (The Bremer River rose like 20.5 metres compared to 4.8 metres for the Brisbane river -- Brisbane had nothing on Ipswich!).

I grew up in West Morten Region (basically the townships west of Ipswich), so places like Gatton, Grantham, Forest Hill, Helidon, Laidley et al are just not names coming out of a newsreaders mouth to me. It is truly quiet personal.

Family is okay. That is the main thing. The biggest concentration these days are in Rosewood and Walloon, which while cut off from the rest of the world, are okayish. Dad did say their house in Walloon came within two blocks of the peak mark. Close, but a serious bullet was dodged. Especially frightening is while Walloon is relatively low lying to begin with, the Bremer River is like a couple of kilometers down the road from it - it went that far.

What truely broke my heart though was the Ipswich Motorway around Goodna being completely swamped. I think those images are going to haunt me for ages.

I think I am totally in love with Anna Bligh though. She has been truely remarkable through this.

http://www.youtube.com/user/videovisionqld has some remarkable videos of the Ipswich region and the http://www.facebook.com/pages/Ipswich-Flooding-Community-Reports/172411896133636 Facebook page has some rather detailed photos.

Nice to see you're okay Lady Conquorer. I wonder how some of the other Brisbaneites are these days. Especially jazamul (though last I remember (which was what 6 years ago!) - in Aspley!

 

[Miss Chicken]

The Goondiwindi levees are holding so far. The MacIntyre River is at 10.62 metres and still rising. This is above the previous record of 10.6 from 1996. The river is expected to reach its peak in about 3 or 4 hours.

 

[Switch]

Meanwhile, 400 people have died from flash flooding in Brazil.

 

[RJDiogenes]

Dozens have been killed in Sri Lanka and the Philippines as well. This is not a good week.