Well ... yes and no. Rain of this intensity is certainly natural but not as 'freaky' (uncommon) as you might think.
I don't know, when rain is falling at rates of up to 3" per hour for hours on end over such a vast area, that's pretty bloody "freaky" to me.
I assure you that the Authorities are NOT exaggerating this event.
We're flooded in at the upper Logan river. Rathdowney and round mountain are above major flood levels so those areas downstream, Jimboomba and Logan, are in for it in the next 2 days. Here's a video i took this afternoon at 4.30pm. The second part of the first video, logan river, was 1 metro over about 1 hour after i took this video. Boonah is as usual cutoff so there are no roads that divert.
We're flooded in at the upper Logan river. Rathdowney and round mountain are above major flood levels so those areas downstream, Jimboomba and Logan, are in for it in the next 2 days. Here's a video i took this afternoon at 4.30pm. The second part of the first video, logan river, was 1 metro over about 1 hour after i took this video. Boonah is as usual cutoff so there are no roads that divert.
Although I was 14 during the 1974 flood, I do not have a lot of memories of the devastation it brought as I lived in an area that was not flooded, we did not have a car to go ghouling at other peoples misery, and our view of it was limited to 4 tv stations. All the same since that time I have spoken to people that were affected and working for the water board I grew to understand somewhat of the events. I did not expect to ever be a witness to such an event as the flooding of Brisbane.
That last statement was a bit silly wasn't it? History has shown that flooding of river systems is inevitable. In fact, the oft quoted 1974 floods were not even near the largest recorded flood in Brisbane... that title belongs to the 1893 flood, which rose to 10' (about 3m?) higher than the 1890 flood which in turn was 18' (close to 6m?) higher than the 1887 flood. Our short lives don't allow us the perspective to see that these events are frequent (on a broader timescale... we understand that as astronomers, don't we?) and very much natural.
While manipulating our environment must contribute to the the devastation... just think of all those creeks and streams that have become fixed in their courses and not allowed to meander as they have done for millions of years... the fact remains that such devastation has occurred even before major deforestation, agriculture and urbanisation, and will occur again (its only natural). I don't think that AstralTraveller was being insensitive, he was just pointing out that just because we have not experienced something it is not unnatural or freakish.
I hope that everybody; IISers, their families, friends, people they pass in the street, even Trekkies and cat people are kept safe and receive help if they need it.
Last edited by firstlight; 11-01-2011 at 11:46 PM.
Reason: wrong date 1893
G'day Sam, Looks like Jimboomba will be cut off again, the last time that was cut off (a couple of years ago) there was a guy fishing there, and he ended up pulling out a 10KG+ Carp. I can't believe how much rain we are getting, I'm guessing Maroon and Moogerah dams are overflowing as well.
Be smart people, and stay alive, don't cross anything that has fast moving water over it. Too many have lost their lives already.
That is an interesting read, Tony. Something tells me that it isn't over yet. We are yet to see a cyclone this way this year.
Regards, Dutch
Wivenhoe Dam is presently at about 175% of its water storage (supply) capacity, and about 80% of its total design capacity, which includes flood mitigation. Releases at present are 236,000 megalitres per day, which equates to 2.73ML per second. That means that they are releasing Brisbane's total daily consumption every 30 seconds or so.
...
To see the data on the dams, Google "SEQWater", or visit these links
Latest update has the following information: "Releases will be reduced slowly throughout the night to track dropping levels. First reduction has been to around 610,000 megalitres per day."
The amount of water that they are releasing is quite astounding, almost difficult to comprehend. That is almost 1/3 of Sydney's Warragamba dam capacity being released every day at that rate.
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