Anyone heard from the Toowoomba crew???

[I_wanna_Shed]

Watching the news footage is totally unbelievable. My wife's sets of grandparents are in Rockhampton and Toowoomba, and thankfully, not directly affected.

My thoughts to all those forumites who are impacted by this. As long as you come out safe, houses can be rebuilt.

Nathan.

[Claw Hama]

Stay safe all you Queenslanders and Northern NSW too. Glad you're ok Wendy
Tradgic time for everyone up that way.

[rhancock]

We're on the creek at Windsor, in inner north Brisbane, so we've evacuated this afternoon. I spent a hour or so choosing which tools to move up high and which to leave to take their chances..

We'll be fine, now we're out, made sure the neighbours were ok, packed the kids up and locked the doors until the weekend. (actually, if it's safe, I'll go back tomorrow morning and move more stuff upstairs. The neighbour was here in 74 and said it came to her doorstep upstairs, and our house is a few inches higher, so hopefully the living areas upstairs will be ok, but after Toowoomba, anything is possible.

Don't think I'll get much work done on my hall table in the near future.

Good luck to those others out there, don't hang around, get out, there's plenty of evacuation centres, but if there's anything else I can do to help, don't be afraid to shout.

[funkychicken]

I'm fine, I was stuck at work for a while yesterday. I couldn't get past Gowrie Ck (where all the water on the news ends up) nor Meringandan Ck. As well as all of the West Creek crossings. Mt Kynoch was blocked by a landslide and it's the main route out of town. Chalk Drive was underwater, most of the footage you would have seen is of there and Dent St (along West Ck)

Meringandan is fine, we don't flood, the creek is overflowing but no one is in danger here.

I spent the day clearing out a house on Marcia st that flooded due to bad drainage and ripping up carpets at a church 100m from Chalk Drive. The water filled up a depressed parking bay, the weight broke the office windows and destroyed an interior wall as well as all the furniture

One of my mates near Gatton doesn't know where his brother is and another mate at Murphys Ck watched his parents get sucked into the creek, their whereabouts are unknown

[rhancock]

That's terrible. My thoughts are with all those who have lost loved ones, or don't know where they are.

[Paul39]

Every day my thoughts and prayers are with all affected by the flooding. .

Those in the woodturning forum are an extension of my family.

Asheville, North Carolina, USA

[Grumpy John]

The flooding that's inundated much of south and central Queensland, Australia, is the worst to hit the country in half a century. It was triggered by unusually heavy monsoon rains just before Christmas and has been fed by much higher-than-normal rainfall since.
Here are some other facts and figures from the floods:
1,000,000: The area in square kilometres (approximately) affected by the flooding. That's larger than France and Germany combined and 10 per cent larger than British Columbia.
200,000: The number of people affected by the floods.
10 million: The number in tonnes of the country's wheat crop that has been downgraded to less than milling quality because of rain damage. That's equal to half the country's wheat crop.
343: The number of millimetres of rain that hit some areas of Queensland in a 24-hour period ending Jan. 10, 2011.
150: The number of millimetres of rain that fell in half an hour near the city of Toowoomba on Monday.
10: The number of people killed during a flash flood that followed that deluge of rainfall. A day later, 78 more people were still listed as missing.
22: The number of towns or cities that are either substantially flooded or isolated.
45: The percentage increase in the global grain prices because of the flood damage to Australia's wheat crop.
30: The percentage by which food prices in Australia could rise, according to investment bank JP Morgan.
20: The percentage of all crops in Queensland that have been wiped out by the floods.
$10 billion: Estimated damage caused by the floods — so far.

Read more: CBC News - World - The toll of Australia's floods

[artme]

That is terrible news about your friends Andrew!!

Glad you are OK.

[wheelinround]

Andrew sorry to hear of the friends hope they find them well and safe. Good to know your safe and active in helping in the recovery efforts well done

[Ironwood]

I just looked on the BOM radar, looks like no rain in SE Qld at the moment so thats good.

I hope for people in Brisbane and Ipswich that the water level doesnt reach the predicted heights.

Last Friday my Parents went to Toowoomba to attend my Uncles funeral, then they went to stay at my cousins house at Murphy's Creek, I cant contact them. My Mother did get a text message to my sister saying "all around them was wrecked, but they were all alive."
We cant contact them on their mobile phones or land line, so hoping all is still OK.

Edit- I just spoke with my Mother, she said their mobile phone all seemed to have flat batteries when they needed them, got them charged up at a neighbours house who has a generator. They are all well, they missed the force of the flood because their house was high enough above the creek.
She said its shocking talking to some of the locals there, of what they went through, and about the deaths, and people missing.

[Fuzzie]

It is all terrible. Even the people not directly affected are emotionally shocked by the impact. Brisbanites are apparently panic emptying supermarkets.

It must be worst for the people who are unaccounted for. One can only wonder what has happened to some and when and if they will ever be found.

I know they used to say that floods like '74 would never be seen again once the Wivenhoe was built. It is now in place and doing it's flood mitigation as designed, but it is just not enough. If you look at the stats the Wivenhoe is currently at close to 200% capacity. It is not in spillover yet, that dosen't happen until about 220%, it is just in controlled release.

One can't help but wonder at a time like now that if we had 6 to 10 years of drought in a row, what would it be like to have 6 years of this monsoonal weather in a row?

[Rifleman1776]

The American news media are finally starting to give serious coverage to the flooding situation. Toowoomba is mentioned frequently. And the videos demonstrate how people are suffering. One flood was described here as an "inland tsunami with a 26 foot wall of water". I can't imagine.
I do note that there has not been (as least not reported) an international response with aid for those affected. I suspect, since Australia is a civilized and industrial nation it will fend for itself quite well without outside support. But, I am sure, if help is needed the United States will be there.
The thoughts and prayers of myself and all Americans are with those affected by this disaster.

[artme]

Lots of offers of help from around the world Rifleman: our neighbours in Asia - China, Japan, Indonesia, Singapore. Offers already from theStates and from New Zealand.

So far only teams from NZ have been used to help as they were able to get themselves and their equipment here very Quickly.

Teams have arrived from other states of Australia and the armed forces are now heavily involved too.

In some ways the nature of our populatio spread is a fortunate thing. Such a vast area so sparsely populated means tht the risk of high loss of human life is small.Of course the flip side to this is that rescue efforts are also stretched because of the distances involved.

With 75% of an area of 770,310 square miles (or 1.863 million square kilometres) declared as a disaster area then you get some perspective of the enormity of this event. You can add to that tens of thousands of square kilometres in NSW also under flood.

It is truly mind boggling.

[RufflyRustic]

I went and did a grocery stockup this morning and am now in at work. I think i got what was close to the last bit of loo paper in the store. The state of the shelves is what I expected, tbh, panic buying of milk, bread, longlife milk, tinned & packet food, fresh meat, fruit and veges. it's really funny though that the supermarkets are getting so low and the smaller butchers, f&v stores are still well-stocked.

So glad to hear funky chicken is safe and Ironwood's family too. Will be keeping an eye and ear out for any other lockyer valley/ipswich/brisbane forumites too.

Bluegum is in ipswich, MajorPanic in Brisbane.

there are more, i can't think of them all just presently.

[springwater]

Anything I can do to help please let me know via PM. I know I'm along way away here in Victoria but I can organise things from here, through relatives up the east coast as far as Brisbane or business contacts. Plenty of shelter here for those in need, I'd be happy to arrange things, just ask we'll see what we can do.