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I have a lot of mates up in the Brisbane floods - amazingly, they are in the evac suburbs, but all live on high hills - so are staying put stocked up with food. The reasons they gave me "just trying to keep it real" 
They still have electricity and internet at the moment.
Work mates down here in VIC happy to contribute money to the relief fund, but a lot of comments going around about how the Gov and Contractors tend to p1ss these types of funds up against a wall when it comes to spending on recovery. I know an Engineer who won similar rebuild gov tenders and he seemed to support this way of thinking, that the companies do milk those opportunities...... not cool. |
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Wivenhoe has massive flood gates that can release any inflow the catchment can throw at it. From memory it can release the contents of Syd Harbour in a day. It is not in danger of failing and has been designed to handle much worse situations than this. The issue is that was almost full (max flood capacity) when this latest rain event hit. Accordingly it has no capacity to hold back any more to mitigate the flood and anything flowing into it is immediately released. The cup is full....and is now runneth over...
For those that are questioning the warning for the Toowoomba and Lockyer Valler flooding on Monday, you are not grasping the difficulties of doing this in the timeframe involved. This was something that happened very quickly - and I mean the actual formation of the rain cloud to the flood event. The supercell formed, dumped, flooded and dissapeared within 1 hour, not hours. Even if a forecaster could predict that a cell like that could have formed, they could never predict where it would hit and the impacts in the timeframe. Also once it started dumping if someone was lucky enough to have seen the magnitude, realised the risk, but then had no more than 15-30mins to warn people. You might have a chance of doing something minor in Toowoomba, but I doubt the outcome would have changed much. 5-10mins warning is all the local authorities might have had at best. However in Lockyer, which is 150ks from Brisbane you are talking about rural properties and a couple of local cops per 1000 square ks. You would struggle to warn everyone if you had a day let alone an hour.
Most of the lost lives were in that first hour or two on Monday. Since then the emergency responce has been very very good. Quite impressive actually.
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K Dog said...
Work mates down here in VIC happy to contribute money to the relief fund, but a lot of comments going around about how the Gov and Contractors tend to p1ss these types of funds up against a wall when it comes to spending on recovery. I know an Engineer who won similar rebuild gov tenders and he seemed to support this way of thinking, that the companies do milk those opportunities...... not cool.
I donated to the Gov appeal but if you have concerns and fair enough, the Salvos will take what they can, at least they are on the front line 
Yes I know what your mates mean re gov waste, I have the same concerns when I donate to these things, but 3/4 of something is better than nothing.
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Oh and whilst I am at work in the city today (for now) - away from any danger mind you. I am extremely impressed by the amount of public roaming the flood areas lending a hand to complete strangers to move thier posessions and sandbag houses. Great spirit.
My Father and brother in law spent most of the night last night driving the low areas in thier utes looking for elderly people who needed a hand. Many others were doing the same thing.
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^ agree firie,
the street i live in did a collection yesterday of cloths, toys, sheets and towels from everyone and took a car full to the salvos.
we are hoping it helps the immediate pain for those affected.
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firiebob said...
K Dog said...
Work mates down here in VIC happy to contribute money to the relief fund, but a lot of comments going around about how the Gov and Contractors tend to p1ss these types of funds up against a wall when it comes to spending on recovery. I know an Engineer who won similar rebuild gov tenders and he seemed to support this way of thinking, that the companies do milk those opportunities...... not cool.
I donated to the Gov appeal but if you have concerns and fair enough, the Salvos will take what they can, at least they are on the front line
Yes I know what your mates mean re gov waste, I have the same concerns when I donate to these things, but 3/4 of something is better than nothing.
I agree - some better than none. Just echoing some of the whispering at work. It makes me proud of Aussies when you hear of stories of people driving around looking to help people out. Well done to them.
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not just driving around... but doing it in UTES!! oh yeah!
my bro's up there busy sand bagging his house, but hasn't been forced to evac.
good luck brisbane.
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Donated to the Salvos just now - they have a dedicated fund for this purpose - you can be sure they will turn the coin into food, clothing and mental help for displaced people. QLD gov site doesn't have specifics on the use..... I wanna make sure coin helps people, not profit....
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cisco said...
Just an aside.
The Wivenhoe Dam is only an earth and rock wall dam for the main part.
If it goes, kiss Brisbane good bye.
I was waiting for the media to latch onto this bandwagon but it seems even they aren't that stupid, surprisingly. As Paradox said the Wivenhoe dam can release an absolute shirtonne of water if required, the 5 gates on the main spillway are some of the biggest of the world and they aren't at full release capacity yet. There is also a second spillway that can be called upon in an absolute emergency to release more water. Of course releases of this much water is an issue downstream but there is no chance the dam is going to fail, it has significant release capacity in reserve.
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Another picture of how much the river level has changed:
PS: I was watching the live web stream when the guy on the bike rode across on one wheel. For the record, he made it all the way across screen... |
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http://flatmates.com.au is providing a free service to list emergency accommodation offers.
If you have a spare room or couch you could offer someone for a few days, (zero rent) you can list it there.
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Papua New Guinea
223 Posts
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my brother lives on the river here is a shot from this morning. that house boat has nowhere to go, the guy living on it has a kayak to paddle away when the whole marina goes.
good luck to everyone out there in the middle of it.
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GalahOnTheBay said...
Another picture of how much the river level has changed:
PS: I was watching the live web stream when the guy on the bike rode across on one wheel. For the record, he made it all the way across screen...
Thats gold  one of the few times you could do that in Coro Drive in the middle of the day.
For further perspective, at the time that shot was taken the river was close to 4m flood height. It will be another 0.5m higher in a couple of hours and another 1.5m higher by tomorrow morning. 
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JayP said...
my brother lives on the river here is a shot from this morning. that house boat has nowhere to go, the guy living on it has a kayak to paddle away when the whole marina goes.
good luck to everyone out there in the middle of it.
JayP, is that photo near macquarie st or elsewhere?
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JayP, is that photo near macquarie st or elsewhere?
Dockside Marina Kangaroo Point - or whats left of it. The whole marina will wander off downstream when the river gets above the pylons
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Windpasser said...
In reality, Air Raid type systems such as in Seoul's and Sydney's early warning systems should be placed in every town! Whether it's a fire, a flood, Tsunami, Meat eating locusts, Mormons etc..., we deserve an early warning.
Whats wrong with the Mormons?
They are very active in unselfish service to their fellow human beings.
Here are a few links from Ipswitch, Nambour and Brisbane.
http://www.lds.org.au/index.php/news/local-news/general-news/251-mormon-helping-hands-delivering-food-
http://www.lds.org.au/index.php/news/local-news/general-news/244-ysa-come-to-aid-of-rspca-
http://www.lds.org.au/index.php/news/local-news/general-news/227-nambour-service-project-
A few years ago Europe was hit with floods and the church donated $635,000 worth of food, pumps, cleaning supplies and drying equipment.
They do countless charitable services that goes unreported. They are not after recognition.
And they are currently helping with the flood and fire victims in Australia.
Dont bight the hand that one day could feed you 
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It been an interesting day for us (myself and both my neighbours), waterfront living is not all its cracked up to be..
Watching pontoons, pontoons with boats on them, a restaurant,and all sorts of debris floating down the river has made for some comedy between us and our neighbours, even knowing that we only have 300mm between us and the water coming into our home for a visit, the 3 of us loosing our pontoons yesterday (with jetski's and boats attached), to say the least its been an eventful day.
I thing i must say is that we cannot believe how fast the river is flowing! Must be doing at least 10kts!!
On another note i must give a great big thanks to all the complete strangers coming by to see if we need help, you guys rock and to the guys who have helped us out, waiting in lines to get sand bags, helping move furniture and so forth, you will not be forgotten! Thats the spirit that Australian's are know for!
I've got all your names and numbers and will throw a huge BBQ/Party for all if we haven't floated away!
Have some pics and ids will post then once the power is back on.
Were pretty right now, just a waiting game, but if anyone in the Bulimba area needs some help, lets us know and we'll do what we can to help you out.
Richo
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Greenroom said...
Windpasser said...
In reality, Air Raid type systems such as in Seoul's and Sydney's early warning systems should be placed in every town! Whether it's a fire, a flood, Tsunami, Meat eating locusts, Mormons etc..., we deserve an early warning.
Whats wrong with the Mormons?
I read somewhere that the LDS are very organised for disaster relief and often hit the ground very early as they keep a ready disaster inventory on hand.
What is happening at the ocean end of the river with all that water is wreckage?
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JayP said...
my brother lives on the river here is a shot from this morning.
not as quite as hawt as stabber's mum, but your brother looks pretty good an a summer top and shorts
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Papua New Guinea
223 Posts
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>not as quite as hawt as stabber's mum, but your brother looks pretty good an a summer top and shorts<
close's thats my brothers fiance.
just waiting for todays pics..........
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