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http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/environment/weather/qldfloods/
Many of you have probably seen news reports of floodwaters devastating townships throughout northern Queensland, Australia. 75% of the State of Queensland has been declared a disaster area.
Over the last week, floodwaters have been pushing southward and today reached Brisbane's river flowing through Australia's third-largest city. The Brisbane river burst it's banks today, submerging boardwalks on both the Central Business District and Southbank sides of the river.
Southbank, was the site of PaizoConOz last September, and GenConOz the year before, both only a street or two away from the river's edge.
Water levels are expected to rise over the next two days, peaking on Thursday, exceeding the level of the 1974 floods that submerged much of city.
Walking along the boardwalk last September after Paizocon, I recall looking up and seeing a flood level marker indicating the height of the 1974 flood. I thought wow, this cafe would be totally submerged!
Brisbane is a lovely city. I have very fond memories of both GenConOz and PaizoConOz, and meeting Brisbane gamers. Flooding will challenge many across Brisbane over the next few days - transport blocked, businesses closed, electricity cut, wet socks, and the cleanup and recovery afterwards.
I hope all your family, friends, businesses, property and yourself get through this week safely. I look forward to visiting Brisbane again (GenConOz 2011?) to join you all for a game of Pathfinder!
Cheers,
Stephen (DarkWhite)
Venture-Captain, Australia
My family is in Brissy - they are doing ok, mums office is underwater. They live on a hill so there is little chance of damage to their house.
Good to hear your family are okay. I hope others are doing as well.
Other than the safety of family and friends, my worst nightmare would be if my gaming collection got flooded.
A mate of mine had all of his Rolemaster Books burnt by his girlfriend to save him from the devil... The surreal thing was he didn't want to dump her because she was good in bed, It took him a year to get around to it. Even then he would look mournfully at my Arms Law book and sigh mournfully.
DW are you in Sydney ... We are talking about a Sydney Pub gathering for Paizo fans - just to chat, make some contacts and drink beer.
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DW are you in Sydney ... We are talking about a Sydney Pub gathering for Paizo fans - just to chat, make some contacts and drink beer.
Sounds like a good idea! Alas, I live in Melbourne and don't drink. Though once you have date, time, venue etc, shoot me the details, and I can email anyone I have on my Sydney list, unless Al or others already have this under control? You can find my contact details on the [ Good Games Blackburn event page ].
Cheers,
DarkWhite
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It seems pretty crazy up there. My aunt, uncle and cousins live in Brisbane, they also live up on a hill and are ok; until a few years ago they lived in Toowoomba, 10 dead so far and something like 90 people missing since the floods went through there.
It's hard to fathom, Brisbane and Toowoomba are both lovely cities, I can't really imagine them as I see them on the news today. I can't get my head around how Toowoomba flooded so badly, it is up at 700m above sea level and I didn't think a major river ran through or near the town ...
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If you want to donate to the Queensland Premier’s Flood Relief Appeal, here is a link.
Whenever donating please do your own research and watch out for scammers.
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[ This Photo ] looks over Brisbane's Southbank.
The large white-roofed building you can see near the centre of the picture is the exhibition building, venue of GenConOz 2009.
PaizoConOz 2010 was held at the Riverside hotel, located on this side of the bridge to the very left of the picture.
Muddy river waters appear to have inundated both venues, and the CBD was described as a "ghost town" yesterday as it was a no-go-zone.
It's going to take time for Brisbane to clean up and recover economically from the floods, but already I'm hearing calls for people to return to Brisbane for their next holiday to bring much needed spending back into the State.
It may be too soon to know, but I'm wondering what plans there may be for GenConOz this year? I was planning to bring PaizoConOz to a new city each year, but economic recovery could be a good reason to consider Brisbane again.
Cheers,
DarkWhite
Stay safe, man.
It may be too soon to know, but I'm wondering what plans there may be for GenConOz this year? I was planning to bring PaizoConOz to a new city each year, but economic recovery could be a good reason to consider Brisbane again.Cheers,
DarkWhite
I think that is a great idea.
Numerous friends of my Mother and Some relatives live in the affected areas but they are safe - bought homes on hills thankfully.
I have been suggesting Canals to drain off excess flood waters in emails to the government for ages now. Perhaps this time they will give them more priority.
The two major Dams in SEQ were built to take floods like the 1974 flood into account - They can hold 200% above capacity. If it was not for the dams the flood waters would have well and truly exceeded the 1974 level.
What happened in SEQ was rainy season was enhanced by a monsoon that moved south in conjunction with a cyclone that's sitting over New Caledonia. That meant that the ground was already sodden and unable to absorb more water when the monsoon hit. This combined with the fact that the Brisbane river is tidal and this time of year the tides reach their highest levels put a lot of water in one place. As the flood waters were trying to exit out the river, the tides were coming in forcing the water back into the city.
The supercell that burst over Toowoomba dropped an incredible amount of water in a small area in a very short time. Water follows the path of least resistance and it ran down the hill and through the city in minuets... it was a like a tsunami. Canals may have taken some pressure off the general flooding but in the current circumstances I don't think that they would have had an effect the flash flood that caused the most loss of life.
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Numerous friends of my Mother and Some relatives live in the affected areas but they are safe - bought homes on hills thankfully.
I have been suggesting Canals to drain off excess flood waters in emails to the government for ages now. Perhaps this time they will give them more priority.
The two major Dams in SEQ were built to take floods like the 1974 flood into account - They can hold 200% above capacity. If it was not for the dams the flood waters would have well and truly exceeded the 1974 level.
What happened in SEQ was rainy season was enhanced by a monsoon that moved south in conjunction with a cyclone that's sitting over New Caledonia. That meant that the ground was already sodden and unable to absorb more water when the monsoon hit. This combined with the fact that the Brisbane river is tidal and this time of year the tides reach their highest levels put a lot of water in one place. As the flood waters were trying to exit out the river, the tides were coming in forcing the water back into the city.
The supercell that burst over Toowoomba dropped an incredible amount of water in a small area in a very short time. Water follows the path of least resistance and it ran down the hill and through the city in minuets... it was a like a tsunami. Canals may have taken some pressure off the general flooding but in the current circumstances I don't think that they would have had an effect the flash flood that caused the most loss of life.
Actually canals would have drawn off a lot of the surplus flood water. The guy who originally suggested canals in the 50s-70s wanted to run them not just from the catchment for the Fitzroy where it started the flood to perpetually dry river sources in NW NSW, but others from Towomba into the same North West corner of NSW, and specifically canals that would take sourcewater north east from the north side of the rivers, and south west from the south side of the rivers out to low output river systems both north and south of Brisbane in what was at the time undeveloped land.
Perhaps we sould consider a huge deep dam to replace the fitzroy catchment as well. Someone mentioned that this week. It would all need to be done before the next rainy season at the end of the year.
Relatives in QLD have been noticing that each year for the last seven years has deposited increasing volumes of rain water in their tanks - so it is going to repeat itself annually.
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Anyone here know gamers that have been affected by the floods and cyclone.
I Have started a blog and want to get gaming material to people who have lost everything in the storms.
If you are aware of anyone who is currently doing it tough and rebuilding please point them here
http://savevsstorm.blogspot.com/
And let them know that while I may not be able to replace everything they have lost I hope that I can at least provide some material so that they can get through the following months when things are going to be tough.
Thanks
Anyone here know gamers that have been affected by the floods and cyclone.
I Have started a blog and want to get gaming material to people who have lost everything in the storms.
If you are aware of anyone who is currently doing it tough and rebuilding please point them here
http://savevsstorm.blogspot.com/
And let them know that while I may not be able to replace everything they have lost I hope that I can at least provide some material so that they can get through the following months when things are going to be tough.
Thanks
Hello Aldoth what you are doing is very admirable.... The people at the Mirage Arcana podcast would be the best people to contact as they are in the Toowoomba area.
http://www.miragearcana.com/
Most of the people in Brisbane had 3 days warning so I am not sure what people lost.
My mother owns a real-estate agency it went under to the ceiling but because they had enough warning they were able to completely clear the office. So it is a matter of structural and power for them.