Damn, It's Wet Here

Tuesday, January 11, 4 pm

Most of you have heard that there is a lot of flooding in Queensland. The truth is, it's been raining more of less continuously since before Christmas. We'll get a day or two of sunshine but otherwise, rain. Our last day of sunshine was New Years Eve I think.

The international media was reporting flooding in "Brisbane" last week but, in fact, that flooding was anywhere from 300-700 miles from Brisbane. As a point of reference, Queensland is about as large as Alaska. So, some of those reports were the equivalent of saying there's flooding in DC when the flooding is actually in Cleveland.

However, in the last 2 days that's all turned around. The flooding has moved to Brisbane. Brisbane's last devastating flood was 1974. As of this afternoon, they've said this will be as bad as or worse then '74. There was a horrible flash flood last night about 80 miles west of here. The pictures are devasting and quite a few people were killed

If I'm understanding the reports on the radio, the weather bureau is expecting high tides of 10-30 feet above flood stage. PLUS there are 3 large dams upriver from Brisbane. They are currently at 150-180% of capacity and the government must release some of that water.

And the worse of it isn't expected for another 48 hours.

Just past high tide. These trees are always in a little water but you usually see lots of mud too.

On Friday we moved out of the downtown/CBD and into the New Farm neighborhood, about 2 miles from where we were. New Farm is surrounded on 3 sides by the river but it's hilly and the land rises steadily away from the river. We are quite a bit above the river and I don't honestly expect any river flooding here. We're just too far away.




View Larger Map

But flooding from rain? I haven't ruled that out. We're high enough up that it's very unlikely that we'll be affected directly but I won't be surprised by power outages, water disruptions, internet disruptions, etc. The new house appears to be pretty waterproof and the builders of this little pipestem put a LOT of thought into drainage. Given how the land lays, we should have huge puddles and standing water and we don't have any. I'm very impressed.

The view from our front door.

Nonetheless, I packed a "grab and go" bag this morning and it's sitting by the front door. Passports, meds, socks & underwear, a good book. You know, the essentials.

Jeff's office was closed today at about 10:30. There were fears of the lower levels of the building being flooded. The city has opened an evacuation center about 2 blocks away from his office. I don't think he'll be going to work tomorrow.

I walked down to the river earlier today and through the New Farm park. I was really glad I was wearing the water shoes my mother-in-law gave me a few years ago. The ground was completely saturated. Even on what looked like solid ground I found myself in water up to my ankles.

Yes, that's my foot. In the grass.

We haven't lost power or water but the internet -- challenged under the best of circumstances -- is really struggling. It's been up and down all day. I've been posting on Facebook whenever I can but access comes and goes. If you can't reach us electronically, don't panic. It's just the internet whimpering.

Yep, this Australian year is going to be quite the adventure.