Monday 10 January 2011

News Flash

Actually that should be Flash Flood.

I received an email first thing this morning from my old friend and regular blog commentator Abbeysmum to tell me that the town in Australia that Simon and I used to work in, and live nearby, was dramatically flooded today. My parents, who live in a small town about 50km away are fine. Their garden is under about 5cm of water simply because the ground is saturated, but there is no danger there of real flooding. I know some of my friends are cut off by floodwaters and marooned in their house. I am sure that others will have had to evacuate. My father had organised a surprise 80th birthday party for my mother on Saturday and almost everyone was able to attend, but not everyone has been able to get home, and they are staying with my parents.

This is what Abbeysmum had to say:

The water from the creek at the back of the Library was up through the library carpark , across the road (covering the seats outside the library) and into Village Fair (Garden Town) to the extent that the whole building had to be evacuated,water was creeping up the escalators !!!!

The water at the corner of Margaret St near the coffee club was raging, I don't know how deep it was, maybe you could look on the Chronicle site, they may have had some Photographers out and about.I did get a few pics and when I get them on the computer I will send some, if you can't see it on the news.

I was on my way to pick up a book at the library and thought I would park on the roof of Village fair just in case the creek came up into the carpark of the library, when I went to walk across the bridge over the road all I could see was water everywhere.

Very scary.....I think we had 3 inches in 2 hours this afternoon and it is still raining and has been since yesterday lunch time, sometimes heavy sometimes light.Big land slide on the range today, closed coming up and down.
My father tells me that the library must now be under water. I watched some of the footage on SBS television. The force of the water flowing through the middle of town was very powerful, pushing a van into a tree which then went over. A 7m wall of water is coming down the creek where I went to college, and people are being told to evacuate. Two people have died and 6 people are trapped in buildings in the centre of town.

Susan

Photos are here

8 comments:

Diane said...

I am presuming that you are talking about the floods in Australia? Diane

ladybird said...

How awful! However, I'm glad to hear your parents are safe. We are having some floods in southern Belgium too, because of the thawing snow and heavy rain of last week. Size-wise they are nothing compared to what is happening in Australia. But wherever it happens, it's always bad for the people who are touched by these floods and see everything they have worked for destroyed or badly damaged by the water. I hope things will return to normal soon and that there will be no more casualties.
Good Luck to your parents and their temporary house guests!

chm said...

It's awful. There's nothing much you can do against water. Just hope it will stop raining. Glad to know your parents are safe. Happy belated birthday wishes to your mother. She's just a kid! LOL

Diogenes said...

The pictures in the Chronicle are remarkable, esp. the cars stacked on top of one another. I assumed the floods had gotten better, because there has been less about it on the news in the States, but clearly that is not the case! Glad that your parents are well, and hope this is over soon for your home town.

The Beaver said...

I meant to ask you about your parents two weeks ago when I read about the flooding in parts of Queensland and then got sidetracked by the holidays. Happy to read that they are safe .
There is also fear of snakes and crocodiles being in some of the flooded areas.

Amanda said...

Amazing, if not sad pictures!
Glad to know your parents and their house are OK. I read that some areas of Australia, the size of France and Germany, are flooded.

Niall & Antoinette said...

Glad to hear your parents are ok. Flooding is scary and it is almost impossible to imagine an area the size of France & Germany combined being under flood water.
In the Netherlands we had to pay a special water tax which went towards management of water levels--they take it very seriously. Most of the country is below sea level and it has major rivers draining into the North Sea which can also flood. When we lived in Wassenaar, near the Hague they proudly told us that if the seas breeched the dunes we'd be better off than most as our roof would still be just above sea level....

Susan said...

Where my parents live there is no watercourse, only artesian water, so there really is no risk of flooding. My mother says that it is not as bad around them anyway, as the plains are not turned into a big lake like she can remember from the big floods in the 1970s. I've never seen Toowoomba flooded like that before though. Simon and I worked in a building on the main street, a block away from the creek, which is a raging torrent in the pictures. We spent a lot of time in the library too - it's right on the creek.

Beaver: no crocodiles in this area, but you do need to look out for snakes.

Diogenes: even in Australia the media had been saying the floods had peaked. This sudden inundation was unexpected, and in a different area to the main flood. It's clear that some places are going to get flooded more than once before this is over.

N&A: very reassurring!

Diane: yes - text altered now to make it clear.

Martine: I've suggested they eat the dog if they run out of food :-)) That'll make sure it behaves itself!

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