Queensland Floods of Jan 2010

Here is a small series of pictures (there were many, many more but these 6, I feel, tell the story best) from during the Queensland floods of January 2010. So after several weeks of rains, the ground was sodden ant then a week of severely heavy rains raised the Wivenhoe Dam to unseen levels. Many towns above the dam had already been destroyed but the dam was then at levels previously unseen and a dam that was built to protect the city had no option but to release almost twice the volume of Sydney harbour every hour. The water didn't take long to reach the city ad many low lying suburbs were submerged. The level was expected to surpass the flood of 1976, luckily it didn't. We had expected the water to flood our downstairs neighbours apartment so we moved some of their stuff upstairs to our living room. the rest went to high ground in the adjacent apartments further up the hill. The water never came in but it did flood the sub-ground level carpark. The electricity in the block stayed on till right up until the peak but was then switched off just incase. Niall Quinn and myself decided to stay the night and watch and wait for the peak level. At around 10pm we saw a massive section of floating concrete walk way break away across the river and wash away down stream 3 hours later is would have to be nudged by tug boats to avoid it colliding with the Gateway Motorway Bridge. We night passed and the next day as my work place was now a marooned island I had the weekend off work so I went on a 7hour walk around the city and took some photos (which you see below). It was the first of many disasters to be fall this side of the world in the coming months, it would certainly be the most interesting months of my life from a weather and geology point of view. Our electricity remained off for another 10days and after that electricity and TV were out for two and a half weeks. Things have finally returned to some normality, the cities Ferries and River Cat Buses have returned and temporary stops now replace the ones destroy by the flood waters and debris. I'll add more photos later or upload the lot to a gallery and put up a link. Enjoy