Anyone heard from the Toowoomba crew???

[TTIT]

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.
............

I just don't get that panic buying bit . When the rain kicked in here just before xmas, the council decided to be prepared and started stacking some road barriers at each end of the main bridge - next thing some dick#&@d has started a rumour (apparently using Facebook) that the main bridge was going under that night and within 3 hours, Woolies shelves were empty!!! Stupid part is that even when we do get cutoff in every direction by road and rail, we still have air transport so nobody is going to starve. It was more than a week later that the bridge was finally closed, by which time the supermarkets all had full shelves again and nobody had to go without anything - but a hell of a lot of good food was thrown out by the idiots who still won't admit they couldn't have eaten it all anyway.
We now have road access north so food flown to Mackay can be trucked out here until the highway to Rockhampton or to the south opens again. Surprisingly, the butchers are still selling meat (but not Woolies and some people here don't seem to know what a butcher does!) and the bakeries are still making bread and nobody has starved yet - wouldn't mind some fresh milk and some fruit though .
People are still piling their lives on the nature strips, midges still driving the last bit of sanity from many and there are some very weary souls wandering around but all-in-all, things are trying to get back to normal. Biggest concern here now is that with Brisbane's flooding getting all the attention, maybe Emerald will be forgotten again! The only thing I know for sure is that I wouldn't want to be in the crew that have to search the Lockyer valley for the poor souls lost in that flash flood.

[RufflyRustic]

Some photos of my shed.

[springwater]

TTIT, mass hysteria seems to be almost physical phenomenon, you should feel the MCG when it's packed out you could cut it with a knife, good to hear your relatively dry, I feel for the others who didn't come through so well

Seems to be all ship shape Wendy except the MDF? box may be in trouble, what are all the purple balls lying around on the grass It's comforting to see crowded sheds, makes me feel normal or something Yell out if I can do something to help anyone you know in need, you never know

[RufflyRustic]

Thanks Spring

The mdf box is chipboard and it is growing a lovelyshade of green. That's OK, I'll remove the wheels and turf it and build another rolling storage bin. Plenty of timber in my shed to use up

The purple balls are actually the fruit of the native tree in the neighbour's yard. I have no idea what the tree is, except that it is an Aussie native, flowers twice a year, the birds go mad over the nectar and when the flowers age, the birds get drunk on the nectar. it then produces the balls or nuts or seed balls which have a fleshy outer and seed pod inner. After a while the outer skin turns a bright purpley-blue. The fruit/seed pods are definitely not edible to bird, animal or human but the flowers' nectar is. The leaves are large, straight and narrow and turn red before they drop from the tree.

TTIT - I have to agree that panic buying to the extreme is ridiculous. but doing a bit of a stock up is prudent especially as the StepDaughter is back after being flood bound at a friend's for a few days and you know how much food teenagers eat .

I, too, hope that everyone gets a fair go at services and support.

they have started the Lockyer Valley search

[I_wanna_Shed]

Ruffly,

Glad you are coming out relatively easy, and I'm hoping everyone on here is the same, and unfortunately if not, safe.

My wife's grandmother is in Toowoomba (the other side of the family is in Rocky - I think she brings people bad luck!). I've only been up to Toowoomba a few times so am not too familiar with it. What I can't find out is, where did the water come from? I did think that Toowoomba was on top of the Darling Downs, so that would make receiving massive amounts of run off hard? Was it just a freak downpour? But even that seems hard to imagine when watching the wild footage.

I love Toowoomba, seems a great place and I can imagine myself living there. I wish the town all the best for the cleanup and rebuild ahead.

All the best,
Nathan.

[AlexS]

Glad you're OK Wendy.
The purple fruit sounds like quandong. If your neighbour ever decides to chop it down, grab it, it's nice timber.

Anyone in Toowoomba heard anything of the DNR hydrographers there? I think they would have been working further north until this started, but don't know if they could get back. They'd be out working if they could. Hope they're all OK, some of them are my students.

[Bruceo]

Highfields has been pretty good but still some awesome rain. My shed got a bit wet,but only sawdust that I should have cleaned out anyway. My dughter's car was swept away by the torrent that went down East Creek, lucky she wasn't in it. We're well and truly isolated at the moment, cant go any direction for flooded creeks. We'll just have to sit it out. Blue sky today.

cheers,Bruce.

[rhancock]

We had about 500mm of water through the bottom of the house today, including the workshop, which wouldn't have been a problem - normally I keep everything above waist level anyway for just this eventuality. Unfortunately they're saying we're going to get another metre tomorrow.

We're all safe, and the important stuff is upstairs and should be dry, although I left all the qld maple downstairs, so I'll have to dry that afterwards. Maybe it won't get wet.

Considering the stories I'm hearing, I think we are pretty lucky.

Here's some photos of the upstairs of our house and the floodwaters:

[RufflyRustic]

I...... Biggest concern here now is that with Brisbane's flooding getting all the attention, maybe Emerald will be forgotten again! ....

I think i kinda get what you mean, TTIT. The news today was all about Ipswich and Brisbane, but what about Toowoomba, what's happening with the cleanup and the roads, what smaller roads are open where, how bad is the damage, do they have any guesstimate for fixing so we can get a bit of essential traffic flowing .....

...What I can't find out is, where did the water come from? I did think that Toowoomba was on top of the Darling Downs, so that would make receiving massive amounts of run off hard? Was it just a freak downpour? But even that seems hard to imagine when watching the wild footage.

Nathan, I too, had that exact question so listened closely whenever the BOM guys were on TV. Toowoomba is right on the edge of the range. you come up the range and immediately go down the hill to the centre of town, where the two creeks run through, and then up the hill to the other ridge line that I just so happen to live on, and then down again out to the Darling Downs.

On Monday, the storm cell developed very quickly, more quickly than the BOM could see and track, so that's why we had no warning. The ground here is completely saturated, especially after Boxing Day and last Thursday, so when this cell hit us and all that rain fell in one to two hours, it had nowhere to go. It rained all over Toowoomba, especially the range and Uni areas and all that rain behaved as it normally does, down the hill and straight into the two creeks through the centre.

Glad you're OK Wendy.
The purple fruit sounds like quandong. If your neighbour ever decides to chop it down, grab it, it's nice timber.

Anyone in Toowoomba heard anything of the DNR hydrographers there? I think they would have been working further north until this started, but don't know if they could get back. They'd be out working if they could. Hope they're all OK, some of them are my students.

Ah Ha, Quandong. Thanks Alex hmm, who says it will be the neighbour chopping it down

I haven't specifically heard anything Alex, but if I hear anything, I'll let you know.

The uni has put a call out for volunteers from the staff to help with the cleanup. I'll be going as soon as my boss gives me the go-ahead. it's the least I can do, tbh.


So glad to hear of the reports of forumites checking in. It's a big relief.

[dai sensei]

Hope all goes Ok for you Richard, the river hasn't peaked yet in Bris, but looks like you got most things up.

My heart goes out to those in the Lockyer Valley, and the others that have lost love-ones.

[funkychicken]

Front page of the newspaper today, my mates parents are among the first identified dead

The "Inland Tsunami" hit Toowoomba. The water came from the sky, the catchment area is only the eastern to western peaks of the town, the problem was the intensity of the rain. All the rain that hit the eastern side of the range flowed through the Lockyer which is partly why the flooding was so much worse down there

All the supermarkets are just about empty and all the servos are out of or about to run out of fuel

I spent half the day clearing out a furniture store, the water level was at my shoulder and we filled numerous skips with damaged couches

[John Saxton]

I'm glad to hear that our Qld members so far mentioned are OK , I feel for those that have lost family & friends as well as all they've worked for over time.

A tragedy like this comes along to remind us how frail we are when it comes to the forces of nature however mother nature has yet reconcile with the spirit of mankind and how we can bond especially in times of trauma such as we have now.

All the best to our Qld NSW members in their time of need.

Cheers

[Rifleman1776]

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.

Thanks for that perspective. Yes, truly mind boggling. Prayers for all continue.

[jmk89]

Front page of the newspaper today, my mates parents are among the first identified dead

The "Inland Tsunami" hit Toowoomba. The water came from the sky, the catchment area is only the eastern to western peaks of the town, the problem was the intensity of the rain. All the rain that hit the eastern side of the range flowed through the Lockyer which is partly why the flooding was so much worse down there

All the supermarkets are just about empty and all the servos are out of or about to run out of fuel

I spent half the day clearing out a furniture store, the water level was at my shoulder and we filled numerous skips with damaged couches

According to this, the main problem was a simple one of planners and landscapers not listening to the engineers as to how much capacity was needed when they decided to use the town's creeks to be part of a park project

[AlexS]

FC, very sorry to hear about your mate's parents. Hope you can help him out in times to come. Our thoughts are with all involved.