Brisbane - from Drought to Flood (more snapshots than anything)

[fadingaway1986]

Hi everyone. I am not exactly new, but have not posted for a LONG time...

I just thought I would post some photos of Brisbane's recent flooding, and also the drought. Sadly I couldn't take the photos in the same places, as where I was standing was completely under water, but you will get the general idea I hope.

August 2007 - This is where you normally launch your boat. They extended the ramp down when there was still some water there, but that is useless aswell at this point.

October 2010 - This is where the boat ramp SHOULD be, but it is now completely under water. This is not the highest level that the dam was at, however once it got a bit higher than this, they locked the place up and that was the end of it.

August 2007 - Just a little bit to the right of the boat ramp.

April 2009 - This is the main part of the Dam.

October 2010 - From roughly the same place as the previous photo. (notice the seat is now under water?) While we were there a seat disappeared before our eyes. We could see it when we pulled up, but when I walked over to take a photo, it was gone. We could not see it at all.



Now, for the most recent floods. I was not able to get anywhere near those places. Every single way out of the suburb I live in, was cut off by water. We were trapped there for 2 days before this following bridge opened enough for us to leave. Even then it was a few more days before any of the other routes opened up.

See the people on the otherside? They weren't trapped, they were just gawking at us. haha. I am not sure why that truck in the middle is there, but it was there the whole time.

That behind me is the main road. At the moment they are doing Roadworks, so there are a lot of roads there, but the one I am standing on is the one currently being used. I couldn't miss the opportunity to walk along the main road

And finally:

This is the carpark of the shopping centre where I work. For the record, we really aren't very close to the river at all. The suburb next to us lost a LOT of houses and businesses.

If you have a look at PhotoMaps by NearMap it will show you the shopping centre (bottom left corner) and the floods near it. This was taken the day after the flood was at its peak, so it has gone down a lot.

 

[PASM]

Interesting pictures. How's things now?

 

[fadingaway1986]

Personally, fine. We weren't affected much. There are still a lot of people without homes. The flood waters receded within a few days in MOST places. A very long clean up for some families though. A lot of places had water over the roofs of their houses.

 

[PASM]

It must be crazy to experience. Mother Nature's going through some changes in this lifetime, that's for sure.

 

[fadingaway1986]

It is very weird. I moved into a new house with my partner on the 7th. On the 11th we had to evacuate as there is a creek behind us. He went off to help his work (he works for the local radio station) and I was left here, with no internet, hardly any phone (reception is VERY BAD in this area) and not knowing the neighbours. I couldn't find out if we would be affected, if I should evacuate, etc etc. I decided to go anyway, and went to my parents for a few days - which is where I got trapped. But I was glad to be with people rather than on my own, with only the tv to tell me what is happening.

Natural disasters seem to have gone crazy at the moment. Christchurch, NZ had a big earthquake last month, in which we lost 2 family members (a young girl and her 5 week old baby) and 2 cousins seriously injured. What is going on in the world? It is very scary!

 

[PASM]

It's terrible what happened to your people. Awful. Difficult to know what contingencies you can arrange..or fund out of a normal household budget. Most people cannot equip themselves..especially at short notice. I'm not being tongue-in-cheek when I feel it may be wise to have a boat, solar panels and old-school, side-band radios, ready to go. Water purification and tinned food too.

 

[fadingaway1986]

Yeah that's right. I know for us, our power was switched off the night before the flood hit, to stop people getting electrocuted! So that was Tuesday night, and it came back on sometime on Friday. My parents like camping, so we were reasonably well equipped for it. Had I have stayed at home, I would have been dead. (not really, as the power stayed on at my house! But had it have been the same circumstances...)