New flood catastrophe

[Marg's Man]

The water in Brisbane is on its way down and the peak was nearly a metre lower than expected. This means that about 30,000 homes expecting to be flooded were spared.
There's till new water coming down the rivers in Northern NSW and Victoria in the south has its own share of worries. And still there's bushfires in the Perth area.

Here's a link from a US paper
http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2011/01/australian_flooding.html
The kangaroos in the tin boat would be wild roos. Wild animals can overcome their fear of humans when their life is endangered. We often see it.
The snake in Picture 4 is a King Brown, one of the deadliest snakes in the world. I hope the photographer got away quickly; this one getting to strike. They are aggressive, strike multiple times, each strike with enough venom to kill and this one would be extra mad.

I heard on the radio this morning that some pictures of people helping were commented by those who don't know Aussies were looters. There's been some looting but only six have been caught at it; the rest are truly helping. It's a very Australian to pitch in and help in these situations. Any looters are likely to find themselves doing duty as flood markers in rising water!

Now the clean up begins.

Marg's Man

 

[HaoZi]

Have to say the snake looks more like a swimming position to my eye. I've seen the same with water moccasins (also nasty tempered and venomous, though not as deadly as the one you describe).

 

[Marg's Man]

Have to say the snake looks more like a swimming position to my eye. I've seen the same with water moccasins (also nasty tempered and venomous, though not as deadly as the one you describe).

It is half swimming half readying to strike. These snakes are BIG, about 4-5 foot long. This bloke would have his back half against the road surface under the water.

 

[svengandhi]

I have been watching this with a mix of horror at the amount of time this is going on and admiration for the rescuers and the regular Australian people. I cried over the little boy who probably died so his younger brother could live. I pray that the missing are all found alive, but especially for this brave little boy.

 

[amazeofgrace]

prays going out to all those affected

 

[Marguerite]

I cried over the little boy who probably died so his younger brother could live. I pray that the missing are all found alive, but especially for this brave little boy.

I cried too. So sad - the flood torrent just came up so fast. The majority of those killed or missing believed dead were lost in that torrent. I watched the footage of a rescuer struggling through that torrent to reach a man hanging onto a tree - the rescuer was nearly drowned even though he was on the end of a rope and wearing safety gear. In the incident with the mother and two boys, at first when the water was up to the car's number plate, they thought they could push the car free. But in the time it took, a minute or two, to get there, the water was over the bonnet of the car and the family climbed onto the car roof. The 12 year old boy said, "Take my brother first," and the rescuer was back and grasping the 12 year old's hand when the rest of the torrent hit and the boy and mum were washed away, ripped from the rescuer's grip. There is no way they could have survived. Absolutely none. The boys were unable to swim strongly, but not even Ian Thorpe (Aussie gold medal Olympic swimmer) could have survived that. There were people in houses that were floating away in the torrent who they believe could not have survived. That torrent really was like a tsunami - forceful all the way to the bottom, filled with dangerous debris ripping flesh to pieces as it collided in the water, tumbling everything over and under - also, a lot of eyewitnesses reported multiple bodies floating past - an arm appearing briefly, a leg... enough to know there were multiple bodies, but so fast and so turbulent that they knew the people were dead. And no way at all to reach them. Cars and buildings caught in the swirl rapidly tumbled, often submerged and were damaged.

Most of the missing people will perhaps never be found. The waters could have carried them right through the rest of the torrent's flow through the dam, down the river and out to sea. What gets snagged along the way would be badly broken up. As water recedes some are being found. It is appalling.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2011/01/14/3113084.htm?section=justin

The official death toll is now 16, but they expect most of the 50 still missing are dead also.

Some wonderful community spirit is being seen, though. husband has a friend from the train club who moved up to Brisbane a few years ago. Ipswitch, I think. Low ground. This bloke (about 80 years old) was told their house was going to get flooded, so he called his train club up there. The members turned up at his house, loaded up his locomotive (miniature live steam, hand-made, a work of art) and any portable tools they could, and took them to store. They took everything they possibly could, but the huge lathe clamped to the floor was too heavy, so they coated it thickly in grease and left it. The last the old man saw of his house, was the roof disappearing under the water. Hopefully his lathe will be safe, but he knows everything else is, thanks to mates.

A lot of people had total strangers helping. Our former Prime MInister, Kevin Rudd, is the local MP in the Brisbane area. He was going from door to door telling people to leave, helping lift furniture and fridges onto tables or into trailers, working hard physically to rescue people and property. Apparently at one point the reporters were clustered round trying to get a photo opportunity and he told them to rack off, get out of his way and let him get on with things. Besides being a former country leader, he is currently the Foreign Minister, equivalent to Secretary of State. This was not a media event, it was a man helping his neighbours.

You might see Qld Premier Anna Bligh in press conferences, with someone signing her speech beside her. The reason - some deaf people contacted the authorities and said, "We need to know what we have to do, please can you set up some way for us to find out what instructions the Premier is giving us?"
And so they arranged for a signer to interpret the speech.

We'll keep you updated.

Marg