The Brisbane River has broken its banks amid dire predictions of the biggest floods to hit Queensland's capital since 1974. The weather bureau says the river is expected to reach major flood levels tomorrow afternoon and rise further on Thursday. It is believed 9,000 homes will be inundated as floodwaters race towards the city. http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2011/01/11/3110450.htm?section=justin [video=youtube;kYUpkPTcqPY]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kYUpkPTcqPY"[/video]
Sorta makes one think about where to put one's house; certainly not in lowlands or next to waterways if one can make a choice about it. Read a sad story also about a boy who gave his life by insisting that rescuers save his brother first. After they took his brother, it was apparently too late to secure him also and he was washed away. http://news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_upsho...t/boy-saved-brothers-life-in-australian-flood LOL... Seriously, in this case though, I don't think even a life jacket would be of any real value. The raging waters would probably slam a person against so many hard land or floating structures that after a few minutes of that one would likely be dead from blunt or penetrating trauma. But of course, it may help keep a dead body afloat for people to find. I guess this is a bit of Katrina Down Under. -dead Given the massive influx of water through what is normally a pretty dry locale, I would be expecting the abrupt appearance of sinkholes for years to come after the water finally settles. <_<
This flood is really devastating.. its been said thats its a 1 in a 100 year event. The amount of rain that has fallen over such a large area.. was just crazy... in some places over 400 mm fell in just over an hour. The area.. that this flood has affected is the size of texas.. if not bigger If someone said that parts of queensland had been in a drought for 8 years.. you would have thought they'd be kidding. And yea.. this is our version of Katrina.. unfortunately.
You know, from the beginning of the video, it is obvious that the cars there could have been moved or driven to higher ground. I wonder why their owners didn't have the presence of mind to do so well beforehand? Two people did manage to drive their vehicles away (one just in the nick of time it seems), but the rest of them got damaged.
I don't think that people realised that the level of the river would rise so suddenly (look at the speed of that water..) and by the time they did.. it was probably too late/too dangerous. they've been situations before in aus that ppl have tried doing that.. and theyve actually died cos they were swept away in their cars
sorry... but am i a bad person if i laffed a little inside? like rly, floating cars down the river in ur backyard... /gg
On my first visit to Bris, there were two factors that got me thinking which adds up to is happening. First the river that encircles the city, its water level in some areas are very close to the level of the ground level. Second, when i was there, it rained like a waterfall over a long period. So I'm not surprised about the flooding. I thought back then that the Engineers should adopt the Europe method of floating houses along the river i.e. for each house there should have an attached huge metal ring like that of a basketball ring but of a much larger and thicker size and this ring slides through a pole that is rigidly fixed into the river bank so when the water level rises the ring will rise up the pole. So if the flood water level is expected to rise 4.5m above sea level then so should the height of the pole above sea level. I remember seeing this engineering feat. in one tv documentary. This is the same principle done on some jetties with walkways at a wharf in NZ.
Edwig, you're absolutely right in that there are many ways that people could prepare beforehand, but there in lies the rub; it takes literally centuries of death and destruction on a civilization before they sort of "get it" so to speak. I don't know the direct history behind them, but knowing human nature, I bet those floating houses in Europe evolved after thousands were washed away over many years. Likewise, in Japan, there are Tsunami Berms; huge man made levees that surround entire cities: From the Japanese Television (TBS) 2001 show 3年B組金八先生(aka Kinpachi Sensei): [video=youtube;IXSvmttfpAk]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IXSvmttfpAk"[/video] That huge grass covered hill topped with a paved walkway wide enough for a vehicle is actually an anti-tsunami levee. This is obviously the kind of structure that cost millions to build and maintain, and I bet the Japanese didn't do this until after they were taught some very valuable, expensive and hard lessons from mother nature. This is the same with seismic or fire resistant structures (eg San Francisco earthquake in 1906 or Great Chicago Fire in 1871). Unfortunately, Man seems a creature that learns lessons only after he gets the s.hit kicked out of him. I'm sure that in the next few years, levee building and flash flood protection will be at the forefront of many Aussie minds (much like their New Orleans counterparts). But as time passes, people invariably have short memories. That's why 100 year or 500 year events like floods or quakes are generally dismissed by human populations as being irrelevant. This is not to say they they don't acknowledge that it may occur, but the fault lies in that most people think that they will occur in someone else's lifetime but not in mine, so to speak. The simple fact of the matter is, a 500 year event may be just as likely to occur in the next five minutes as it is in 499 years from now. It would take tremendous political and social will for Australia to come up with something as elaborate as the Japanese style tsunami protection, which is probably the only thing that can protect a built up area from being swept by surging waters. While individual houses on floating or even elevated, stilted platforms would provide marginal protection for individual dwellings, this remains impractical for multilevel or advanced structures. Indeed, protection of a city and all of its parts would necessitate devotion of civil engineering resources that many would balk at. The lesson learned from the post Katrina debate is that people become very parochial in their view, especially when it comes to funding and resource allocation. The best intentions of providing protection often degenerates into factional arguments and fiscal infighting between government agencies. I guess this is why people 'love' governments, eh? I don't think you, or anyone else (like the people in the video) are 'bad' people simply because you find humor in the unlikely image of a car floating by. However, if after being told or seeing someone swept away with the car and drowning to death, one continues to find humor, then I would suggest psychiatric evaluation.
