Australian Floods

[renaeden]

So they are all Victorian. Some parts of Victoria are experiencing flooding too.

[Adam]

Australia is a very big place...

lol Good point

[Queen Victoria]

^So they had a flood and a fire?

Looters set it alight I'm guessing

I understand that looters did set fire to some of the mansions in the Garden District after they looted them.  There were pictures in Time Magazine of the flooded homes with the flames reflected in the flood waters.  This seemed to be an poorer persons house because of the condition of the neighborhood, the style of the house (a shotgun) and the unburned part looked like it needed repairs. 

A shotgun house is a house one room wide built with the rooms running in a row and the doorways all lined up.  Called a shotgun because you can shoot a gun through it and not hit anything.  Designed to allow breezes to cool the house.  Also the lots in New Orleans are long and narrow because of the original layouts of the plantations which bordered the Mississippi. 

[Parts]

I have been in all kinds of weather be never have I seen anything like the floods on TV.  We have floods but they are mostly coastal and even when they aren't nothing like that

['andersom']

I've been seeing it on the news. It is unbelievable. I have to admit, I had no idea that major flooding would ever be a problem in Oz.

I hope you, and your family stay safe through all of this. The same goes for the rest of the Aussies on the site.

I am alright and in no danger but I am worried about Eclair and moreso TCO's lady "Pandora" (Have not heard from her and feel funny about contacting her in case she has enough on her plate.)

Pandora is active on FB every day I go there, so I guess she is OK.
Loup, she is from the same area as Eclair I think. Did see she was online somewhere today. So guessing Loup is safe too.

The flooding looks like hell, the aftermath of it all will be horrid.


Kyleigh, when you speak of a kind of tsunami, do you mean that there was an acute breaking through of a river or so? 

I hope the water will stop soon.

[PuppetSockPenguin]

My cousin lives in Toowoomba; her house got flooded. She and her partner are trying to sort out the insurance, but they and their children are safe.
I have a couple of friends in Ipswich; I checked up on them and they're safe.
Where I live should be ok as far as I know.

[Queen Victoria]

The Australians probably do not realize the enormous struggle they will have trying to return to "normal".   We still have a few people living in trailers almost 5 and 1/2 years after Katrina, probably less than 200 trailers.

I don't know if ya'll have flood insurance there.  
How much aid will be available from the government?
The infrastructure (roads and utilities) will face a long reapair time.  
There may be struggles between the folks who want everything to be the same and the ones who see this as a great chance for change and "improvement."  
The delay in getting homes and business repaired because of the great need for construction workers.  
And the SOBs who come in and cheat and steal but call themselves contractors.

[GalileoAce]

Australia is all too familiar with floods. Brisbane was majorly flooded in 1974, which is still living memory. The federal government has donated $1 million to the relief efforts and has a 75% cost sharing arrangement with the state governments in situations like this.

There is flood insurance, and most people know this is a long haul to recovery, probably up to a year or more. It's not in most Australians' nature to cheat those in need.

[Charlotte Quin]

Where is Tony Attwood's house?

[renaeden]

GA thinks it is in Caboolture. I don't really know where that is. GA tells me it isn't flooded but the roads leading there are cut off by flooding.

[Adam]

Just saw a picture in the paper of some guy holding a drenched kangaroo he'd rescued

A young one I'm guessing

I know the human suffering is terrible, but for some reason non-human animal stuff really gets to me. Rationally, it's the people you have to worry about, but physically, it's the animals that make me feel it

[GalileoAce]

Just saw a picture in the paper of some guy holding a drenched kangaroo he'd rescued

A young one I'm guessing

I know the human suffering is terrible, but for some reason non-human animal stuff really gets to me. Rationally, it's the people you have to worry about, but physically, it's the animals that make me feel it

I feel similarly

["couldbecousin"]

Just saw a picture in the paper of some guy holding a drenched kangaroo he'd rescued

A young one I'm guessing

I know the human suffering is terrible, but for some reason non-human animal stuff really gets to me. Rationally, it's the people you have to worry about, but physically, it's the animals that make me feel it

I feel similarly

Me too. The thing that most distressed me in the aftermath of Katrina was knowing that so many pets
had been separated fom their families and left behind during the evacuation. 

[renaeden]

I don't think I could bear to leave pets behind.

["couldbecousin"]

I don't think I could bear to leave pets behind.

It would practically kill me. The only donation I made after Katrina was to an animal sanctuary in Utah
that sent volunteer crews to rescue the surviving pets afterward.