Australia flooding again.

It seems as though Aussies in certain parts of the country are in for some tough times ahead once again. From the floods hampering QLD down to NSW. I send my best wishes to anyone affected and hopefully this misery will end soon.

Queensland

The floods were brought on by record rainfall and wind which came form Cyclone Oswald which made its way down the East Coast. One of the worst hit areas was Bundaberg where 1500 people were left stranded and local authorities issued evacuation orders.

The disaster has already claimed three lives in Queensland: a motorcyclist whose body was pulled from a creek south of Brisbane, an 81-year-old man whose body was found near Bundaberg, and a 27-year-old man who tried to cross a flooded creek near Gympie.

Both Queensland Treasurer Tim Nicholls and his federal counterpart Wayne Swan have said the disaster will impact budget bottom lines.

"(The damage is) obviously going to be in the tens, and more likely the hundreds of millions of dollars," Mr Nicholls told AAP.

The misery is only beginning in Brisbane which is expected to flood again tommorow after controlled releases from dams in the Southern part of the state to prevent flooding in other areas. But the floods aren't expected to be worse than what occured a couple of years back.

Premier Campbell Newman and Water Supply Minister Mark McArdle announced controlled releases from Brisbane's Wivenhoe and North Pine dams on Friday as a precautionary measure.

Premier Campbell Newman and Water Supply Minister Mark McArdle announced controlled releases from Brisbane's Wivenhoe and North Pine dams on Friday as a precautionary measure.

About 41,000 megalitres will be released from Wivenhoe Dam and about 8000 megalitres from North Pine.

Advertisement Mr Newman conceded the dams were able to withhold predicted falls but he did not want to take any chances.

New South Wales

NSW is experiencing its own disasters as I speak. The same as QLD, flood waters are forcing the evacuation of residents with the Clarence, Wilson and Bellinger rivers rising.

Residents are being evacuated from towns in northern NSW as floodwaters isolate communities while severe weather drenches Sydney with more on the way.

About 2000 people were cut off in the state's drenched north on Monday afternoon, with about 850 people isolated at Ewingar, west of Lismore, and 400 at Darkwood, on the Bellinger River.

At 4.30pm (AEDT) flood warnings were in place for eight NSW river systems, the Bureau of Meteorology advised on its website.

In Lismore, the NSW State Emergency Service (SES) is doorknocking homes and 500 residents are being evacuated, with the Wilsons River at a height of 9.7 metres.

Meanwhile, in Grafton, more than 1500 people are expected to be evacuated on Tuesday as the Clarence River continues to rise.

Another interesting phenomena occured on the Gold Coast where ocean foam has washed ashore covering picnic areas and walkways and was said to be up to a metre high in some places. A video was released of how dangerous this has been when a car appears out of this foam on a road and nearly hits bystanders..

THE wild weather on Queensland's southeast coast has whipped up more than the swell, with layers of ocean foam blanketing some roads and parks on the Gold and Sunshine coasts.

Gold Coast holiday-maker Lionel Armitstead says the white froth has come up the foreshore at Burleigh Heads and is covering pedestrian paths and picnic areas.

In some places the suds are up to one metre high. "It's like a snowstorm," he told AAP. "The kids are up to their shoulders basically ... I've never seen anything like it."

Again, I will say good luck to everyone who has been affected or due to be by these floods. Only only seems like we have just got over the floods from 2-3 years ago. Also the same to the people of NSW and Victoria whos lives are being threatened by bushfires. Keep safe..

Gold Coast/Sunshine Coast foam
Water release
QLD floods
NSW floods

Australia are really struggling in this hard time ..

After record heat now come extreme flood ..

Although temperatures around the country have receded this week, many Australians no doubt are still having fever dreams of their country's recent skull-boiling weather. The past four months have been the hottest ever recorded on the continent, with a new countrywide high temperature on January 7 busting the mercury bulb at 104.6 Fahrenheit. (It wasn't much better that night, with A/C units struggling to compensate for 90.3-degree heat.)

www.theatlanticcities.com...

reply to post by MariaLida


It said that in Bundaberg the flood waters are up to the roofs of the houses with people stranded on top. I hope everyone got to safety somehow... Be interesting to see what developes over the coming days.

reply to post by DarknStormy


It has really damage Bundaberg Area down through to the NSW coast lines. Living in Ipswich, Australia, we have had power outages and flooding as well. from news reports most of Queensland area has been hit hard. It is still down pouring at the moment. But please keep all the families in your prayers.

We purchased a block of land a few years ago at Forest Beach about an hour North of Townsville. My husband said why don't we build a house on it & rent it out for a few years & I said to him (this was August 2009) it will have to be on stilts. He said to me but look at all the houses just on a concrete slap around our block we don't need no stilts. I said to him, QLD floods.

At this time we were in drought & all these councils have let people build normal houses where most years before the drought it flooded.

This will be very year until the next drought.

Yeah I'm from the northern rivers in NSW, floodin' pretty bad, we live up a great whoppin' hill so we're not affected apart from a big tree of ours getting blown over onto the road. It was promptly cleaned up by the fireys though so we're laughin'. Lookin' a bit rough elsewhere but,

reply to post by Oneggod


My brother is up in Townsville and he said the rain up there was unbelievable. Its crazy to think that the same system has affected the coast all the way down to Grafton. Only last year I done the road trip down the coast and that is a lot of area to cover.

Its crappy for the queenslanders.. I feel for them, must be devastating losing your homes to fire and then flood.

I do want to say something but,

Tonight on the various news channels 3 separate people were interviewed who lost their homes.

Each of them said something to the effect of

'' we had just finished rebuilding after last years floods ''

I need to ask.. How many more times do you expect insurance companies and the Australian Tax Payer to rebuild your home, if you insist on building it in area's that flood almost yearly?

Best wishes and good luck to all those affected. Particularly any ATS'ers.

May be my British imagination when it comes to Australia, but i imagine it isn't a pleasant place to be stuck on the roof with floodwater (all the nasties lurking in it) - only adds to the general unpleasantness of being a flood victim.

What seems obvious though is that this is becoming more and more common place "down under". I suspect that melting Antarctic ice sheets will lead to greater and more intense storms for you so i was wondering what the flood defences are like? Are there already huge Mississipi style levees? If not, may be time to invest in some......must be cheaper in the long run than continued insurance payouts of hundreds of millions.....

reply to post by Flavian


The Wivenhoe dam had to have water released to prevent more flooding I'm pretty sure an that water is due to flood parts of brisbane tommorow. I'm pretty sure they were worried about the capacity levels but then again, I seen this was only a precautionary measure.

reply to post by Agit8dChop


Yeah its got me beat why the would rebuild in known floodways again but I guess if it was my land and I didn't want to leave, I would also.

The thing about floods is that their damage can be minimized by putting biomass at the right spots. A swamp can suck up huge amounts of water. Cultivated land is not the best sponge, but if you have a small forest you can really stop a lot of water. The thing I wonder is when I see levees, why is there not roots running through the ground that can strengthen them. I think we humans often are naive when we choose to fight nature. We should be working with it. If cities are stupid enough to build only one type of house and have small lawns in an area, the area will be susceptible to flooding. We need more awareness about ecology and working with nature.

My heart goes out to all the people and pets out there. Hope no members are affected.

The Daily Telegraph
January 29, 2013 10:35AM

More than 2500 people around Grafton in northern NSW have been ordered to evacuate their homes amid fears that river peaks may cause record flooding and inundate properties.

www.news.com.au...

bumping because i was looking for any threads on this disaster (yes it is a major disaster) ,before starting one and found this in the depths of page 3 . Many more members may have replied but about 200,000 homes have been without (mains)power for the last 3 to 4 days and counting in high 30's temps and 90% humidity.
I know many will be hanging out just for a cold drink.