Queensland Flood

[Tas]

that's the same I'm following Oz. That's the expected list.

Turn on the beep! eh they are no longer expected... Saw picture of the area saw the indooroopilly bridge and water everywhere through chelmer and Graceville. Rocklea and oxley were up to the rooftops.

Beep is what? I was asking what you were following for actual, and you gave me a list of expected based on model which didn't make sense as you were referring to the list as if it were a factual summary of actaul reported flood points.

[Aliya]

I cried today when I read that story about the little 13 year old boy refusing to be saved and asking that his 10 year old brother be saved first then he and his mother were swept away and drowned . Too dreadful to think about.

Apart from all the dreadfulness of the human stories, has anyone heard anything about stock and horses? There must be people who were not able to move stock to higher ground before this hit them, I shudder to think about them as well.

One of the towns put up an 8mtr levy and that seems to have worked so far, which town was it?

[Mr Oz]

Sorry lost internet for a few hours.
http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/environ ... 19lfb.html

ok, no one seems to have the most up to date information. I was watching the helicopter fly over chelmer/graceville area on the TV I saw the church at graceville and the areas around the church not under water however to the east and south were badly flooded, to the north (towards indoooroopilly) the road next to the railway line on both sides were cut, the other road (main road next to the church) might still be open however the loop under the indooroopilly bridge at chelmer was flooded out . Geez I hope she got out! BTW 4am tonight the river will peak.

[Tas]

The nuts thing is in some of these photo images, I've never seen Brisbane look more beautiful on a sunny day. Quite sad to see some of my old homes and suburbs under water.
Oh and yes that story about the 13yr old boy was quite heartbreaking. Aliya, on the news there are also routine stories from the RSPCA - with respect to their facilities that were flooded, they managed to relocate all their animals, and they anticipate a heavy workload following the aftermath. With respect to non-RSPCA, in Toowoomba most of the event was within the CBD, but the whole region is water logged, and likely feed issues at some point. With respect to Lockyar valley that is likely to be a more tragic case, but at this stage they are still struggling to get into the region.

[Fat Bob]

Whilst sympathising the events in Brisbane, have a mind for the deaths in Brazil where 230 people were killed in mudslides caused by unusual rain patterns. More rain fell in one day than normally in a month in Teresopolis, north of Rio. Many villages are still cut off and there's a lot of people missing so that death toll could rise further.

[baloo]

I must say Anna Bligh has been super impressive during all of this. She had many detractors since taking office but I reckon she's really shown what she's made of during this crisis. Giuliani like.

[Tas]

Yeah, even my die hard labour party hater father has said similar. Cambell Newman has been good too.

[baloo]

Here's the story of the 13yo kid who died because he insisted his 10yo brother be saved first. Heart wrenching stuff.

How Jordan died to save his brother

IT IS almost unimaginable the fear 13-year-old Jordan Rice would have felt as the car he and his family were in was pummelled by a wall of water.

But as it began engulfing the vehicle, Jordan, who could not swim himself, insisted his younger brother, Blake, 10, be rescued first.

It was a heroic gesture. One that cost him his life.

And, like so many others who have risked their lives to save strangers, it almost cost the life of one of the rescuers, Warren McErlean.

Mr McErlean thought he got it wrong when he saw a water gauge on a street in Toowoomba rise 20 centimetres in 10 seconds on Monday afternoon.

Five minutes later he was clinging to a pole, dodging cars and wheelie bins after he risked his life to try to save the Rice family.

While Blake was rescued, Jordan and his mother, Donna, 43, perished when they were swept away in the flood.

''When I first saw the car the water was up to the number plate,'' Mr McErlean, 37, a Toowoomba builder, told the Herald.

''I thought I would push it backwards but by the time I walked 20 metres, it [the water] was up on the bonnet and coming up the windscreen.''

Mr McErlean grabbed a rope, tied one end to a post, the other around his waist and set out to rescue the woman and two boys but the fast-moving water swept him downstream.

Another rescuer, known only as Chris, pulled Mr McErlean to safety before tying the rope to himself and approaching the car to grab Jordan.

But Jordan wanted his brother to go first so Chris took Blake, handing him to Mr McErlean part way across before heading back to the car.

''I had the boy in one hand, the rope in the other. I wasn't going to let go but then the torrent came through and was pulling us down,'' Mr McErlean said.

''Then this great big tall fellow just came out of nowhere, bear hugged us and ripped us out of the water.

''When I got back I turned to look at the guy [Chris]. He looked at me and we knew it was over. The rope snapped and the car just flipped.''

Chris, who had been holding Jordan's hand until it was torn from him, flew metres in the air before locking his legs around a post in the centre of the road, said Mr McErlean.

''The others were just gone, just disappeared,'' he said.

[center]
Young hero ... Jordan Rice, 13, insisted rescuers should take his 10-year-old brother Blake first. By the time his turn came, it was too late.[/center]

[JJ]

Brazil - yes well it does actually happen most years around this time... the favelas regularly slide down the mountainside with lots of death... guess most years its a bit more spread out as opposed to over a couple of days and as its not just the shanty towns, it makes the news...

[JJ]

I also hoping that friends in Brisvegas are ok, havent heard back from them yet but assuming that comms are a bit of a mare at the mo...

[daffodil]

I must say Anna Bligh has been super impressive during all of this. She had many detractors since taking office but I reckon she's really shown what she's made of during this crisis. Giuliani like.

Whereas it seems Julia is getting a lot of criticism for her public handling of the disaster.

Maybe it's a new start from Bligh though am sure the subsequent review and blame mongering post clean-up will be feral.

[Mr Oz]

Ignore

[Mr Oz]

Maybe it's a new start from Bligh ...

Nope only 2 things are certain the waters will recede and bligh will be thrown out of office. The woman broke the trust of Queenslanders (Water grid, Power and most importantly assets sales) no amount of admiration will save her from oblivion. Most Queenslanders are of the opinion like me "oh so now she actually DOES give a shit about us? Yeah yeah whatever!".

[Tas]

Well there's a few things in there, I'd say the majority of the public in both NSW and Qld are frightened of the cost of any major infrastructure spending, and anything difficult that requires major changes to an area or forced aquisition of land is met with an almighty force of opposition, and the media always looking for a story present absolutedly anything and everything in a negative light, and so do any opposition government in this world of negative attack as opposed to shared responsibility - that I personally think that either side of politics - liberal, labor, green, democrat - has been absolutely strangled in the court of public opionion that no one can get a darn blasted important set of works done, whaterver you politics may be.

[Mr Oz]

Tas it comes down to trust. Virtually everything bligh said she was not going to do at the last election she is reversed within weeks of being elected. It not that she did what she did but she bald faced lied about it. Honestly she didn't give a damn that many labour unions are going to campaign against her. Maggy Thatcher no emotion! Her opinion polling before this crisis was as low as keneally in NSW (something like 22%). The only thing going for her is the opposition is really bad. Everything she does is ridiculed. That might change a little now we have actually seen she is human.

[JJ]

Sounds like she would do well in the old country. Same M.O. as Smarmy and Smarmier back in Blighty...

[Mr Oz]

Well she is the direct descendent of Captain William Bligh. We all saw what happened to him.

[Burbage]

Well she is the direct descendent of Captain William Bligh. We all saw what happened to him.

I have two parents
I have four grandparents
I have eight great-grandparents
I have sixteen great-great grandparents
I have thirty-two great-great-great grandparents
I have sixty-four great-great great great grandparents
I have 128 5xgreat grandparents
I have 264 ...
I have 528 ...
I have 1056 ...
I have about 2K ...
4K
8k
16k
32k
64k
128k
256k
500k
1M

So in twenty generations I am the direct descendant of that lot, give or take the occasional duplication... What's a generation? 30 years. That's only 600 years. I'm probably a direct descendent of Henry the eighth. And we all know what happened to him.

[Mr Oz]

I'm probably a direct descendent of Henry the eighth.

So your name is burbage TUTOR then?
Direct male linage William Bligh - Bligh - Bligh - Bligh - Bligh - Bligh - Anna Bligh

[Lili Von Shtupp]

So your name is burbage TUTOR then?

Where's that little "not supposed to laugh" smiley?

[Mr Oz]

Just spoke to my friend, who I haven't been able to get in contact with to see if he was ok. He's a mess, he's been stuck in Toowoomba since monday, the phones only can back yesterday. They were going to leave on monday (fortunately they didn't) but decided to get the car serviced in Toowoomba. Lucky the dealership parked the car on the other side of the building. They are high on the hill and were coming down to pick the car up and saw the wall of water crossing their path so turned around. He doesn't know whether his house and/or investment property in Brisbane is damaged. One is by the river and the other in a valley were a flash flood went through on Tuesday. He can't get back to check, the roads are still flooded...Poor guy.

I'm going to do a drive by tomorrow, I'm really not looking forward to telling the guy I have known for 20 years that his life is now in ruins.

[Mr Oz]

So your name is burbage TUTOR then?

Where's that little "not supposed to laugh" smiley?

I know burb will pull me up on my bad english but it should burbage TUDOR.... Sorry Burb

[Burbage]

The point was that the name is meaningless, six generations mean that there's only 1/64th of Captain Bligh in her.

As for the floods, well they may be the event of the century, but I want to listen to the cricket on the radio. Would you believe that I have to connect, via a ghost proxy server, to the BBC in order to hear streaming of the ABC's cricket coverage?! And I'm in the far north where we get this sort of rain every year and we know that you have to have good drainage and build on high ground. If I had lost all power and was sitting in my muddy home I'd be livid that I couldn't have something distracting to listen to. Instead all you get on the radio is a sort of extended phone in show, with people phoning in saying how wonderful everyone is, and how muddy they are and how terrific it is to be a Queenslander cos we can do it tough. I mean, for christ's sake, we KNOW. People aren't going to just give up and die, are they?

All we need are the warnings and the basics facts. They can interrupt the cricket for that. And the flood victims without power and only a radio connection to the outside world would have something enjoyable to listen to, that would take them out of their misery for a little while. And when the cricket's over the ABC can go back to reminding everyone how miserable they are, or, perhaps, they could think outside the box and try and cheer people up with a bit of radio comedy or something.

[baloo]

Shame you're not English Burby. We could have pasted your picture in the Urban Dictionary where they list "Whinging Pom".

[Burbage]

Shame you're not English Burby. We could have pasted your picture in the Urban Dictionary where they list "Whinging Pom".

At least we don't devote 24 hour blanket radio to whinging. Which is essentially what the ABC have done.