A lot of my FB friends are talking about how bad the flooding is in some parts of Australia right now. Apparently in the last 24 hours many evacuations have been ordered. Just hoping all the AussieDopers are doing okay. Any check ins from people actually in the thick of things?
Not in the thick of it but close - low-lying areas of my suburb are being evacuated now. From what I can gather (my mother’s on the phone to them now) my grandmother and aunt are being told to evacuate.
I uploaded this photo to Twitter before: Plixi – The #1 Instagram Growth Service | 10x Faster & Better Results. My house backs onto a river and that is what was a fairly steep valley in a park next door to me. That’s obviously nothing compared to the really heavily affected areas like Toowoomba, but we’re all still a bit nervous.
Really hope that if we have any Dopers/their relatives in the area that they’re okay.
I’m in Victoria so it’s all a distant event for me, but the people of all the affected areas, Toowoomba in particular, have been in my thoughts all day. I’m hanging on every news update and hoping for good news soon.
We have friends in Toowoomba, we’re trying to check on them but… 
Have mates in Brissie, too.
We’re in Sydney, so we’re ok.
It’s been bad inland and in northern parts of Queensland for the last ten days or so but (without detracting from the misery of those affected) those are relatively lightly inhabited areas.
Now the flood is starting to affect the much more densely populated south east corner of Queensland. Yesterday there was massive flash flooding in Toowoomba (which is about the fifth biggest town in Queensland), with about eight killed and currently 72 missing (which is ominous).
There is a lot of water heading down the Brisbane River valley and there is significant flooding predicted for Brisbane tomorrow and Friday. At the moment I’m not sure of the extent to which the flooding will be really serious in Brisbane itself and the extent to which there is an element of exaggeration designed to ensure people aren’t apathetic.
Personally I live on a hill and our house will be fine.
Hang in there Aussie Dopers. You know we loves ya. And if there aren’t better bands in the world than Silverchair or Midnight Oil, then…“aaaaarrrrrggghhhhh!”
Seriously, keep yourselves dry and safe.
After what’s happened in Toowoomba, let’s hope that people aren’t apathetic.
The organisation for which I work has just sent an email around to all employees informing us that our Brisbane office has closed and won’t be re-opening until any crisis has passed.
Video of flooding near Toowoomba
It’s nothing short of devastating. My town had minor flooding a month or so back, but I can’t even begin to imagine what these communities are going through and will continue to go through for many months ahead.
In Brisbane at the moment, the rain is falling @ 100mm per HOUR. Good grief. 
Take a look at this: http://www.bom.gov.au/products/IDR66D.shtml
I have never seen that much red on that map, and a lot of it is in the Brisbane River catchment. I think this might be quite bad.
Wow. High ground shelter.
Hang in there. Hopefully soon your vast desert will suck all the leftover water into itself, giving forth a bountiful harvest of desert cactii (and a nice warm growing season for your wine grapes), and you will be flooded no more.
Seriously though, does living in a semi-arid area like many parts of Down Under are combined afford some different type of quick flood relief? Does the parched soil mixed with so much sand do a good job of drainage?
Parts of California are known for mudslides. But the soil compositions are vastly different.
I’m in Brisbane city at the moment. (Brisbane is a large city, and the state capital.) It is lunchtime. Essentially everyone who works in the city has been sent home. Just a couple of us diehards holding the fort in my office. All major shopping centres in the city have closed. Public transport is looking perilous. Most workers evacuating.
From my window, things don’t look too bad, though. The river is high (it’s sloshed over walkways) but it doesn’t appear catastrophic yet, although I’m told basement carparks in town have flooded. I am about to move my car up to a higher level in the basement.
The fact that Australia has semi-arid areas doesn’t help much. The flooding is in the (relatively) coastal regions which are not arid and where the soil is saturated at the moment.
Some Brisbane suburbs have been ordered to evacuate or have been advised to seek high ground (per Sky News). Public transport will shut down soon. Debris is visible from the river. Reckon I’ll chuck a sickie tomorrow.
I can’t say about other parts of Australia, but Brisbane does not seem to me to have good drainage. It’s not particularly hilly, though, so I don’t expect mudslides-- maybe around the Gap? There’s steep inclines around Kangaroo Point but that’s solid rock cliffs. Anyway, we haven’t been warned of mudslides. The worry is high tide now.
Wow guys. Stay safe and hang in there.
Queensland Police Service have just said that public transport won’t shut down at 2pm as some had previously thought - apparently Central station has opened its gates for everyone to travel free? According to Translink, though, there are no trains or buses going further than Strathpine on the Caboolture line or further than the end of the Ipswich line.
Again Auslanders…hang in there. I don’t know what else I can say.
The scenes on BBC are horrific. Has anything like this happened before, at least in recent memory? Do they know why it’s so bad this time?
South East Queensland bears as much resemblance to desert Australia as Arizona does to California. Probably less.
SES from NSW has been called in, several members from our office going.
Stay safe up there, Brisdopers.
Australia is a place of “drought and flooding rains”. Floods have always been with us.
What happened in Toowoomba yesterday was stunning in its suddenness and ferocity and I suspect there may be some questions asked as to how it happened. I don’t know whether the “wall of water” was just a result of some remarkably heavy and sudden rain in a particular location, or of something artificial that has changed water flow patterns. I certainly have never heard of this happening in Toowoomba before.
As to Brisbane, there were big floods in 1974. I remember those. There were even larger floods in the 19th century. Have a look at this:
Floods used to be more common in the 19th century but not so much in the twentieth, perhaps due to land use changes, dams, dredging of the river and perhaps climate change.
Siam Sam, we had some floods a year or so ago. The last flood this bad was in '74. Since then, a vast dam was built to control this level of flooding at Wivenhoe on the Brisbane River. That has significant capacity to trap upstream water, but its flood gates are open already for fear of too much water in the dam. The water released from the dam is contributing to rising levels in Brisbane.
As to why it happened, the immediate cause is probably the La Nina which has given us unusually high levels of rainfall.