Queensland Floods

Hello Everyone!  I have been so touched by all the emails and messages from people checking on us as the floodwaters raged through our town.  On Tuesday, heavy rain lashed our region which resulted in creeks bursting their banks in Toowoomba and rushing through the Lockyer Valley.  From our area alone the death toll stands at 16 and there are still 56 people missing.  This does not include those that have been killed since Christmas in Central and Western Queensland.

On Wednesday the Brisbane River starting rising and inundating thousands of homes.  I live in the Western Suburbs in an area known as the Centenary Suburbs.  We are bounded by the Centenary Highway on one side, the Ipswich Motorway on another and the river on the other.  Those homes down near the river have all gone under.  Water has also come up through the creeks, inundating areas well away from the river.  We live high on a hill and we and our home are fine, but we know many who are not.

We lost power on Wednesday morning, and our home phone, so we took the only road out to head to friends who were unaffected (and taking the contents of the fridge/freezer since we couldn't buy any ice!).  We are so thankful to them for helping us! On Thursday we had a bit of a look around since nothing about our area was on the radio.  Here are some photos from our area....

I'm standing on an off ramp to the Centenary Highway, looking back towards the Centenary Bridge.  Just above the green signs you can see a small hump - that is the bridge.  By this stage, the water had gone down - it had been completely under.  Behind that you can see the road going up on the other side of the river to Kenmore.  The river went right down the highway for as far as we could see until the bend in the road.  This is our way into the city.  All this water is now gone.

This shipping container was found on the road opposite the park where my boys play cricket - a couple of blocks from our house.  It must have floated through the park which backs onto the golf course - which has a creek that meets up with the river.

Friends of ours were ONE HOUSE away from going under!  We walked around there on Thursday to see if they were OK.  This photo is taken from the house across the street - it overlooks the golf course I mentioned above.  All you can see is water and if you see the mark on the fence to the right, you can see how high the water actually got - half this house went under.

This is just a small, small part of Brisbane, so you can imagine what it's like all over the city.  As I write this, we have power but no phone or internet.  I have no idea when our internet will be back, so my posting may be a little sporadic.

I was VERY relieved to see that the major Queensland Highway was finally reopened through other flooded districts yesterday.  I have family in Maryborough and near Gladstone and both of these towns have been cut of north and south for about a week with their Supermarkets completely bare, things were starting to get a little stressful up there.  Remember, it is not just Brisbane, Ipswich, Toowoomba and the Lockyer Valley that are affected, we are the latest ones, but so many towns have been affected over the last few weeks.

Thank you to everyone for checking on us - we are fine and so, so lucky compared to many.  If you want to help, please donate to the Premier's Appeal at www.qld.gov.au/floods or if you are overseas, consider donating to whatever appeals are going on in your country.