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Australian flood crisis worsens as Brisbane threatened

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8 dead? 72 missing? This does not sound like the Australia I know and love, sounds more like some South East Asian country. RIP dead Aussies.

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You've got an area half the size of Japan drenched or underwater. After suffering drought for so long, this is a real kick in the teeth. This could cause a real mess when it reaches Brisbane, especially after seeing the Toowoomba footage on the news. I have a sister with two small children in Brisbane, and I must admit it is a bit of a worry.

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I cant hold back my tears, reading the news-this great expanse of land, half Japan! France and Germany combined! and waters running all across the country and there are farmers withheld from tapping into water to irrigate. Its a crime, this ecological mindset. I notice the ABC shows the anniversary of Haiti alongside clips of the devastation the floods. Cant we as people combine ourselvs now? Turn together. Where are our Aussies? Come and pray.

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"Monday’s flash flooding struck without warning in Toowoomba, a city of some 90,000 people nestled in mountains 700 meters above sea level. "

Flash floods. There were some that hit Spain (or Italy) about a decade ago that were so bad that the towns were just abandoned. Mud and rock two stories high, from the foundation to the rafters.

I can see this happening in Toowoomba. "Nestled in the mountains" means taht you have all that water from up the valley PLUS all the water from surrounding slopes, PLUS slopes up the valley. And because the slopes are rocky, there is no drainage. If the storm is huge, or if the timing of smaller storms is just right, all of that water hits the town in a huge wave. It must be worse than a tsunami, because it just keeps flowing. It does not recede.

Terrible news. I hope they can recover. If anybody can, Aussies can.

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Best wishes to all our Queensland brothers and sisters - they are a tough mob those Queenslanders, and they will get through this.

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This is not a third world country. Are their weather people on vacation or something? They were not even warned to head for high land. Sort of like the Big Thompson in Colorado years ago.

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Like I said a week or so back, these people are really getting the shaft, and some VERY much more than others. My sister and her hubby had to move due to the vast wild-fires a few months back, when their livestock and fences along the pastures were burned... then the day they settle into their new place it gets flooded. Fortunately they are safe, but I feel terribly sorry for them and all the other people there suffering from this chaotic weather. I hope it gets better soon, and I hope the government helps them out both now and when it's done.

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If you read the Australian news you will see that it was being monitored by the weather bureau and they had issued a severe weather warning but the storm was far worse than predicted. Sad to see the terrible loss of life hopefully the toll doesnt rise but it doesnt look good. Especicially when they are saying flood waters will reach 22 metres in some areas

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With enough advanced warning then, why didn't they leave?

You all ask this question any time a Japanese dies in a typhoon, so now I ask the same.

With enough warning, why didn't they leave?

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With enough warning, why didn't they leave?

I think it has to do with the unprecedented nature of the flooding. They were prepared for floods, but not a wall of water ripping through the town centre, which has no precedence in the town's history. They only had minutes warning of that coming.

It's been raining virtually without stop since November, so we are very much stepping into the unknown here. The dam above Brisbane is now full and there are worries it will simply overflow (lets hope it doesn't bust). The areas expected to be affected is changing by the hour. It's a little different to the typhoon situation as typhoons are regular events. This would be more in line with a once a lifetime event.

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All my best to my Australian friends.

Taka

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Amazing thing is this piece of land, claimed to be larger then Texas & the same in size as Alberta Canada IS also the driest part of Australis.

I pity the lives that have been lost, but also the homes to businesses that have been next to being classed as TOTALLED. This is so hard to believe for I have been in a few floods in Western Canada.

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Thanks to all who send their best wishes. Unfortunately this site doesn't supply a lot of information as to what has been happening here. In some parts of the upper catchment of Toowoomba (the start of this torrent of water) the rainfall was so heavy they received more than 200mm (8 inches) in an hour and that all just bottle-necked into the city proper of Toowoomba causing such devastation.

One of the towns hardest hit had every house taken off its foundations and were moved to another town approximately 30km away. Some of those houses were upside down, some were unrecognisable as buildings.

Some more information that has been passed to me via a state government department, states that Wivenhoe Dam has a 100% capacity of 1,165,238ML (currently at 190% capacity) and is releasing water at a rate of 490,000ML per day, however the amount of water going into the dam is around 1,032,000ML per day. For those who use the US imperical measurement system just devide these numbers by 3.785 and you'll get the amount in gallons(US). Also 1ML = 1,000,000 litres just to help with your conversion.

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