Sunshine state attacks
The Sunshine State has had an attack of flood, but not just any old flood, but the worst flood in the history of the State.
These floods said by the Premier of Queensland, Anna Bligh to be the worst ever in the State. Some of the worst hit towns are: Gailes, Goodna, Grantham, Gympie, Ipswich, Lockyer Valley, Rockhampton and Toowoomba. The cities of Toowoomba and Ipswich were the worst hit out of the list mentioned.
Toowoomba was the first of the two major cities to be hit on monday which totally flooded the whole city. With the floods peaking at 19.1 metres, it caused chaos in the main street where all the shops were based. It was devasting and locals were stunned and shocked that the floods could have reached Toowoomba. For everyone out there who doesn’t know much about Toowoomba, Queensland, this city is located 127kms South East of Brisbane. With a population of around 130,000 people and with the town sitting 700m above sea level, you can only imagine why you not evacuate being so high from the ground. Toowoomba locals can now only look towards to the future and the clean-up ahead of them. As a result of these floods, lives have been lost in Toowoomba and Lockyer Valley. A total of 12 people have died and as many as 50 people missing. We can only hope that the people of Toowoomba can re-group and continue on with life after the disaster that has his hit this great city of Queensland.
Now the other major city to have a full dose of flooding is Ipswich. This city has had floods up to 19.7 metres which is practically having your entire house under water. Can you imagine your house under water at all? I can’t and the locals certainly can’t. Back in 1974, Ipswich had a flood disaster that had similar depth of water in it and you can only imagine if there were locals there from that year what they would be feeling right now. I was able to get in touch with a local, Snjezana Bobic, from the town of Redbank, located 29kms north of Brisbane. Snjezana, a journalist herself, was able to tell me first hand of her experiences and even provided me with two photo’s of Ipswich, one including Redbank.
…With the floods now making its way to Brisbane and already have hit the 4.40 metre mark, we can only expect drastic things to happen any hour now. I was informed about 90 minutes ago that the Gold Coast will probably get some floods as well. Just recently the Kings of Chess Club hosted the Gold Chess Festival from the 26th-30th of December. Then there were terrible weather with rain everyday.
having had some conversation with President of Chess Association of Queensland, Garvin Gray, he has assured me tha no chess clubs in his state have been affected by the floods. However reports have come in saying that Ipswich Road, where the Brisbane Chess Club is a possible road that could have some flooding. How much we don’t know exactly.
We can only wish that the floods don’t affect the chess community in any way at all, but we hope that these floods don’t affect any more people or businesses badly.
If you wish to donate to the flood relief fund you can at this website: www.qld.gov.au/floods/donate and you can choose your way of donating and the amount you wish to donate.
Full article here: http://jamiekenmurechess.blogspot.com/2011/01/sunshine-state-attacks.html
Such a tragedy.
Too bad. Kismet is a female dog.
I live in Brisbane and it is just utter devastation in some areas.
Probably the weirdest part is the difference between living on the north side of Brisbane and hence the north side of the river and living in the South.
The north has had very little effects and if it was not for the tv and internet you would think we just a few days rain, nothing unusual.
Whereas in the south and west parts of Brisbane, whole suburbs and regions are underwater.
I live in the north west part of Brisbane and it just feels like another day.
Sometimes it is just too much.