Aussie members: how are you coping with the disasters

[David Rowland]

Anyone seen Jason for a while?

[Andrew Bennett]

I’m glad your ok Shane.
Here’s hoping all our other aussie members are ok.
Don’t think your being a sticky beak at all though shane.

[Quentin Tomkies]

Hi Shane, we’re very lucky up here. We had flooding all around us for a few days over Xmas when the cyclone came through, but it’s the towns south of us that are copping it pretty bad at the moment.

Cheers
Q

[Shane Drew]

quote Dave Rowland:

Anyone seen Jason for a while?

Dave, Jason is in the heart of Melbourne, its the country areas down there that are coping it most.

Interestingly the Murray River down there had basically stopped flowing for some while, and it was pretty desperate for everyone from irrigators to town folk relying on the water.

Now, its flowing thick and fast, to the point they’ve had to close it to recreation in some parts.

Thanks Andrew, I know a lot of guys in the trade here, and some have, I fear, been wiped out. The flood plains out west are huge, and not really uncommon during our wet seasons, but this one has been especially bad. I do worry about them.

Quentin, thanks for the heads up, I’ve been thinking of your situation for a few days, but I’m not sure exactly where you are.

I’ve got sign friends that I can’t contact in some of those areas, and I’m keen to see if I can organise some help for everyone affected if possible.

I’ve fired off a few emails to several organisations within our industry trying to get payment relief via extensions of credit for those in the affected areas, and I’m trying to get some answers from our sign association to see if I can get there support.

Sadly, I’m not getting much positive response, but I’ll keep plugging away anyway. I know if I was in the same situation, I’d like my colleagues to do something similar if possible.

When you see some of these businesses with mud and silt up to their ceilings, its hard enough for them to re focus on work again, but harder for them to pay their bills in the short term.

I’ll see how it pans out anyway. The emergency services are saying that this could go on for another month, if the cyclones keep coming, so it pays not to be complacent I guess.

[John Singh]

Great to know you and the family are OK Shane

[Michael Potter]

As usual we were only flooded in for a few days. Not like the poor people up north & out west. Gees Shane you sure are nosy 😀 Jason just posted on facebook, a picture of some new gear he bought ( looks big, possible second hand & expensive
cheers Mike

[David-Foster-]

All the best to you all in Aus, nothing worse than being flooded out, horrible.

[Jason Xuereb]

Hey Dave,

I’m all good. Took two weeks off work. No mobile phone and no Internet. Spent a week down on the coast here in VIC and a week over in Phuket.

Shane: Heard via my courier just now Brisbane might start to flood. Hopefully it doesn’t reach down that far.

Hope everyones good.

[Jason Xuereb]

quote Michael Potter:

As usual we were only flooded in for a few days. Not like the poor people up north & out west. Gees Shane you sure are nosy 😀 Jason just posted on facebook, a picture of some new gear he bought ( looks big, possible second hand & expensive
cheers Mike

Hey Michael. I bought a Heidelberg T Platen Press it isn’t new its from the 1950’s. Learning to do letterpress printing as my hobby. Love the machinery and love the tactile feel of the prints.

[Quentin Tomkies]

Southern Queensland is really getting hammered with flood waters now – I hope you are in a high area Shane??

[John Singh]

quote Quentin Tomkies:

Southern Queensland is really getting hammered with flood waters now – I hope you are in a high area Shane??

How are you doing Shane??

[John Singh]

from Shane:
Our biggest dam here has had to release water (6000 swimming pools a second) so you can imagine all that water flowing down rivers that are already bursting their banks, plus we have a king tide due tomorrow.

Its not good to be honest. 6500 homes are expected to go under tonight in Brisbane, with another 16,000 homes expecting some form of flooding. 14,500 people have been evacuated tonight to shelters at schools and community centres.

We are not affected by the Toowoomba/Brisbane River system, we have our own here from the Hinterland behind us. Unfortunately, the Hinterland is also getting more rain than they can handle in their dams, so our rivers are expected to overflow their banks sometime tomorrow or Thursday.

Difficult times for a lot of people, I feel for everyone involved.

I expect you’re otherwise occupied at the moment Shane
Hope things don’t turn out too badly for the family

[Shane Drew]

Thanks John,

Its devastating to see so much heartache. At least 10 of my friends have water over their roof.

I’ve got several clients that have been literally wiped out. Even those not directly affected by the water, will experience hardship. They have turned the power off in to the CBD, 1,000’s of people are out of work, equally, many have lost everything in their homes, some homes have been washed away.

I watched a floating restaurant that owes me nearly $6000 sink today. The insurance company has advised the owner will not get cover for the sinking, as he was not covered for this type of event. He’s devastated, his staff are devastated, and I’m guessing I’ll lose my money. The owner is already talking bankruptcy.

We’ve seen expensive boats ripped from their moorings, caravans, even planes, have been washed away and floating down rivers of mud and water.

My kids were staying with friends about 20 minutes away, I dropped them off this morning at 8am. Went to pick them up at 3.30pm, but our local river system came up so fast, all the roads were closed due to flooding.

I’ve never seen so much water frankly, and our situation is a drop in the bucket to what is happening up the road in Brisbane City.

I finished up just driving down the coast and tried to find back roads to go inland. I’d be lost without my gps. It took me nearly 2 hours to get around the floods, I’ve seen some wonderful sights too, but after 4 hours, I got the kids home safe. A local asked me if several cars could follow me back home as they didn’t know how to get out safely. I had a convoy behind me coming home, all woman, who were very appreciative of me and my GPS 🙂

Not forgetting I had to get the kids home or the wife would have killed me!!

Lots of tragedy here at the moment. Sadly, children in Toowoomba were being rescued only to find their parents missing when the rescuers return save them. The orphan toll is just terrible.

We are now told tonight on the news that a cyclone is also expected here in about 10 days. Lets hope they are wrong, because it will be a disaster on top of all this water we have in the river systems.

I know a lot of businesses, sign shops included, will not re open after this event, and the river as not even peaked yet. Tomorrow is D day for Brisbane, and I think it will be D for devastation based on reports we are hearing from the Police.

We are safe here, but plenty aren’t unfortunately.

75% of the state has been declared a disaster area.

Take care friends, thanks for all the emails.

[Andrew Bennett]

Glad to hear from you Shane.
Fingers crossed for you and your family and everyone caught up in this mate.
I have a mate who is committed to a move from ChCh to Brissy on 31/1/11 I imagine he’s wondering what he’s done wrong!

[Shane Drew]

My Cousin emigrated on Sunday… he is starting to wonder if it was a good move.

Hope your mate is not going to be living near the river….

[Stephen Morriss]

Good to hear your Ok Shane.
Like you say though, there are many that are suffering.

Steve

[Nicola McIntosh]

good to hear you and your family are all ok shane, I was totally unaware of the extent of the floods, just googled some news videos, and maps of your area, quite scary how they happen even though you are quite a bit away from the coast, makes me moaning about the snow a tad trivial now 😕

take care nik x

[Shane Drew]

Hi Nik,

Toowoomba is 2000 ft above sea level, at the top of a mountain range. For them to get a flood that has killed so many is a freak of nature. The damage and death in Toowoomba was bad enough, but the momentum it built up running down stream was really devastating, Complete villages wiped off the map, killing everyone except 4 people in one small town downstream, and they only survived by the skin of their teeth, hanging on to trees and scrambling on to the roof of a house.

They are calling it an inland tsunami. A wall of water over 8mtrs high, destroying everything in its path.

[Hugh Potter]

just received this email from one of my dads cousins out there….. they’re safe but this brought it home to me.

Hello everyone,
Many of my friends around the world have inquired if I’m affected by the flooding. I’m not. Here in Sydney we’ve only had a cloudy, sometimes rainy (Not excessively so) and very muggy summer. The flooding is in the state north of here (bigger than Texas) called Queensland. Northern NSW (my state) is also affected. It seems this will be the biggest natural disaster in Australian history!!

The flooding has caused flash floods, likened to an "inland tsunami" with a 21′ wall of water suddenly racing through downtown Toowomba. It proceeded east into the Lockyer valley and wiped out several towns. My inlaws used to have a hobby farm there, and no doubt it is under water now. Then it moved east to Ipswich, an outer Brisbane suburb. There has been extensive flooding there, as it is a flood plain. I’m sure Mike Potter’s nephew Brett Taylor and his family have been evacuated, though I’m waiting to hear. The river system is further exacerbated because the dam system is 70% over capacity and it is having to release water at the rate of "two Sydney Harbours" per day. That’s 200,000 megalitres. It is heading towards metropolitan Brisbane and should peak at four a.m. tomorrow. The water is rising rapidly still, and the rain is steadily pounding down as well. Mike Potter’s sister Ann Taylor also lives in Brisbane, and I don’t know what’s happened to her and her husband. Christy’s brother in-law Scott McDonald and his wife Terry have left their flat with their cat and their car packed as full as they could get it. The water is rapidly rising up their street.

By tomorrow they expect 20,000 homes to be flooded in Brisbane alone. Northern NSW is also flooding, but people there had more warning and were better prepared. Several rivers in NSW are 10-20 feet above their usual level. The worst is not over, and all the missing have not been accounted for. Right now there are 12 known dead, and 52 missing. It’s amazing it isn’t more! There has been so much flooding in Queensland this year, that some people have had their houses flooded twice, even three times.

We are rivited to the news, and all the stations are focusing on their flood coverage. Many companies who work in Queensland have already lost on their shares. The economy of the entire state of Queensland is probably shot, and it’ll take years to re-establish the infrastructure and economy. IT is a big mining state.

Ironically a year ago many of the flooded areas were almost drought-made deserts and drinking water was in dire straights.

It is amazing to see how Aussies pull together, helping each other out through this crisis. The prime minister Julia Guillard is busy visiting centres for the homeless, and the Premier (like Governor) of Queensland Anna Bligh is making half hourly press statements while she monitors the situation. Her own parents have been evacuated. Our NSW Premier Kristina Kennelly has also visited the flooded areas of No. NSW.

I can’t tell you how horrible this flooding is!! The square area affected is probably close to the size of Pennsylvannia. (My rough guess). Even Australians who remember the horrible 1974 floods in the same area can’t believe the magnitude of this one.

Thought you’d like to know. Your prayers are welcome.

[Neil Davey]

Comforting to hear you and your family are OK Shane.
The news reels are unbelievable, everything and anything in the waters path just being swept away, boats, riverside bars, livestock.
Just caught the 6 o’clock news and the floodwaters are coming up through the drains in Brisbane!!
Haiti last year, now Australia, China a few years ago, all these natural disasters……mother nature has gone mad!

Look after yourselves Shane.

[Hugh Potter]

to be honest i’d not taken a huge interest in it, more a case of having not really seen the news properly in the past week than not actually caring but, having family there and realising friends from here are in the area made me sit down to the news this evening, i’m almost lost for words after watching some of the footage of brisbane, i’d seen a little of the up-state / up river footage last week but seeing it in a city really brings home how vulnerable we are.

this is gonna be one hell of a clean up.

[Nigel Pugh]

I haven’t followed the news until the last few days so can I ask a question, has the UK sent / offered assistance ??

[Jill Marie Welsh]

Our Oz friends are in my thoughts and prayers.
Love…..Jill

[Peter Normington]

Just seen the news,
Brisbane is getting wet, but thankfully, not many people have lost their lives. so its only property that is damaged. Nigel I dont think we need to offer any finacial help, well not for property anyway, I did have a little giggle at the Australian Philosophy though, one reporter said, "behind me you can see people rescuing all they can, surf boards…."

My thoughts go to those whose lives have been devastated by the floods,

lets hope they can get back to normal as soon as possible

Peter

[Shane Drew]

Hi friends,

Nigel, New Zealand and America have swift water rescue teams here helping with water rescues.

The river is running at 21 knots, so a lot of pleasure craft haven’t got the power against the swell. Some boat owners are choosing to ride out the river by floating with the rubbish, fraught with danger tho.

Everything from caravans, smashed boats, pontoons, tractor tyres and cars are floating down the river, so it is a dangerous place to be

At last count, 100 countries have offered help.

They have found 15 bodies to date, not including the two that drowned – 1 checking his property and being sucked down a storm water drain, and the other driving at night and not seeing the flooded street, driving in to the swollen river and drowning – but 70 are still missing, presumed drowned. They are looking for 50 residence in one small town alone.

They estimate 2.5 million people are affected, and some will be months before they can move back in to their homes. No one can get their power restored until their houses are inspected by an electrician, so guess how hard it is to find an electrician now….

Another peak in the flood expected at 4pm today, so its not over yet..

[Hugh Potter]

the magnitude of the disasters in recent times is bordering on biblical proportions, haiti, pakistan floods, tsunami’s, now Aus, I wonder if the Myans will be right after all 😮

crikey, small world…. most of my dads family are in kenya, south africa and a few countries in between, quite a few emmigrated to Aus in the 50’s / 60’s when dad came here, Just got an email from another of his cousins in SA and their daughter is actually in Toowoomba 😮 what are the chances!!!

they’re ok and the flooding apparently abated within a few hours where they were, higher up i guess, the water surrounded the house but didn’t make it through the floors, the children, all valuables and computers were passed out via the window and went to next door who was built on stilts!

apparently their ducks and the labrador were loving it 😕 their damage was limited to some crops, outbuildings (water/silt) and one fatality in the hen house, farther down in the town was a different story though, as we know.

[David-Foster-]

quote Shane Drew:

The insurance company has advised the owner will not get cover for the sinking

You have got to love insurance companies. If they can wangle a way out of paying (:)

[Shane Drew]

… at least our sense of humour has not been sunk. Sign seen on a power pole near the flooding

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Attachments:

[Shane Drew]

http://media01.couriermail.com.au/multi … index.html

Check this out. Photo’s of the 4 days that changed our landscape

[Graham Shand]

quote Shane Drew:

http://media01.couriermail.com.au/multimedia/4days/day1/index.html

Check this out. Photo’s of the 4 days that changed our landscape

Truly heart breaking

[Cheryl Smith]

I don’t watch the news or buy papers….and to discover this is truly horrendous, everyone affected is in my prayers.
makes my grumbles insignificant.

[Michael Potter]

Bugger….We just had a second flood event, it went from 6" to over 3′ in less than an hour, all with no rain here it must have really pelted down in the catchment. Gloria got trapped on the other side and I traveled down to the edge of the rapids sideways in the car fortunately it hung up on a large rock tilted at about 30 degrees. Strange feeling opening the door and having feet of water flow in.Managed to get to shore and collected the tractor & neighbor then we pulled it out. Only slight damage to the clutch large damage to the pride and excessive damage to ear drum very late on the next day. seemed to coincide with getting my good lady across on the tractor. Boy life sure isn’t dull.
cheers Mike 😀

[Shane Drew]

quote Michael Potter:

Bugger….We just had a second flood event, it went from 6″ to over 3′ in less than an hour, all with no rain here it must have really pelted down in the catchment. Gloria got trapped on the other side and I traveled down to the edge of the rapids sideways in the car fortunately it hung up on a large rock tilted at about 30 degrees. Strange feeling opening the door and having feet of water flow in.Managed to get to shore and collected the tractor & neighbor then we pulled it out. Only slight damage to the clutch large damage to the pride and excessive damage to ear drum very late on the next day. seemed to coincide with getting my good lady across on the tractor. Boy life sure isn’t dull.
cheers Mike 😀

Life seems an adventure since you moved to the bush. Look after yourselves mate, the triplets need you!

[David Rowland]

blimey mike