QLD Floods

[David Leikvold]

Chris,

I'm all set and ready to go tomorrow, all I need is a decent squeegee which I hope to get first thing tomorrow. I was just going to go to Fairfield and help anyone who needed it but I'll go to John's instead. My little Karcher is electric, so I'll bring a power board so we can plug in all of them. I probably won't be there until just before 10am, I too have things to do first up. Because I'm not working fulltime anymore, I can work just about any day John needs. See you tomorrow.

Cheers
Dave

[OLDtimer]

You guys are doing a great job up there ! Makes me proud to be a DLRA member, knowing that we all band together like this when the need arises. Our thoughts are with all Queenslanders. Pete. DLRA #6

[Havachat]

G'day to all who belong to the DLRA family, & all the best for the rest of 2011
It couldn't get any worse --- Could it?
Thanks Chris for thinking of us all & enquiring into our circumstances, regarding the floods. We were certainly thinking of you all , as to how you all came through.
My wife (Sandy) & I were in Adelaide, enjoying the sun & no rain. When the rain decided to travel our way, Sandy decided it was time to head home.
Friends & family thought we should sit it out, but nothing was going to sway 1 persons mind. We managed to miss the floods & rain, while zig zagging across west to east.
We returned yesterday, 5pm, with bugs on the bonnet & dirt on the wheels, but luckily very little water seen. Mind you we saw where it had been.
The worst thing of the journey was trying to avoid bloody great pot holes & blow outs in the road surface. I'll be booking the car for a wheel alignment, just to see how the Maz 6 survived. Lost cruise control, maybe shook a wire loose?
I was glad to finally connect with the M1 just south of Tweed & travel to home.
In total we travelled just shy of 6000 kms return, & now I look forward to going to the Lake.
If I don't see you before, I'll see you there. ( i.e. if you don't see me first.)
Cheers with some beers & the occasional wine.
Craig.

[David Leikvold]

Bob, Chris, Nathan and I turned up at Barnes Auto at various times today to get stuck into the job. What a job. What a day. It took me almost 3 hours to do a 30 minute drive from Grange to Rocklea, there was so much traffic and so many closed roads. A few people got impatient with the delays and did U turns on the divided road which had been completely underwater two days ago. One clown driving a tray truck with two cars destined for the wreckers decided he couldn't wait for a gap in the median strip so he just drove between two bushes. His back wheels sank instantly into the saturated garden bed and he was stuck, cleverly managing to block the right hand lane in both directions.

Some people blamed spectators for the traffic but I prefer to think of it as people like us just getting to where they intended to work for the day. A friend of mine has a house at Fairfield, which is very near Rocklea. The water was 2 feet deep through the house the other day. By today the water had gone and they could get in. They were swamped (pun intended) with volunteers just knocking on the door offering to help. They thought they could do it all themselves but finally accepted the offer from a church group who came well equipped with generators, water blasters, a team leader and about 30 people. More than 20,000 people around Brisbane put their hands up to help. The council had tried to minimise the traffic problem and potential security issues by getting people to go to four different centres where they had to show photo ID and were then bussed to the areas of greatest need. That was a good idea but they couldn't cope with the huge numbers of people turning up.

Barnes Auto was a huge mess, but there were already about a dozen people working there when I arrived. The floodwaters had reached almost 3 metres deep through the place (14 Besser blocks in the old money). When the water finally receded it left a layer of smelly, slippery mud about 4 inches thick. It smelled like a garbage truck on a hot day. The water had ruined the internal gyprock walls and had almost made it into the mezzanine level offices. There was no power but at least we had clean water. We finally finished about 5pm. By then all the mud was out, the outside walls had been washed, all the Gyprock and other wreckage was on the footpath and the shed was almost back to normal. We will all sleep well tonight.

Cheers
Dave

[Last Minute Racing]

Good to hear David, makes me feel lucky to be in South Oz. We have been very lucky with the weather. I live in Birdwood, we got 135 mm in 12 hrs the other day but nothing at all compared to what the rest of you got.

Hope to see you all at "THE LAKE" soon.

Good luck with ya clean up.

Thanx
Dave

[momec2]

Thanks for the report Dave, you forgot the sump oil. The majority of Rocklea is Industrial which they hav'nt given much coverage and anyone whos been in a workshop knows the sump oil goes in a bunded tank of some sort normally with an open top. Black oil coated everything some parts thicker than others.
They said all Johns trucks were out on jobs and saved so at least now his business can keep going and gradually fix the depots. Some businesses will not be that lucky.

Thanks Nathan Bob and Dave. Great team to work with.
Chris

[momec2]

Nathan hard at it.
Look at the tide mark on the dead leaves on the tree or the oil lines on the post.

Chris

[David Leikvold]

Looks like everyone will get a turn, Victoria is now flooding. It's time for all our Victorian members to get ready to help each other out as best they can.

Cheers and good luck to you all.
Dave

[DON NOBLE]

Thanks to all for helping out . Am just glad we moved , because our house at Oxley well and truely copped it . Good on you all for your efforts .

[REAL Stan]

Looks like everyone will get a turn, Victoria is now flooding

Hay Dave.
It's the second time Castlemaine has had flooding in the past 2-3 months,this time was the worst 200mm minimum lots of houses
small business & the pub went under.And a lot of surrounding tows as well.Now were near what you Qld ers coped.Keep up the good work
over there good to see the DLRA brotherhood doing the job....

[David Leikvold]

Stan, 200mm is bloody annoying, especially twice in 3 months. It's just high enough to ruin Gyprock walls, carpets and furniture. Did everyone's important stuff (cars and sheds!) make it?

In Gympie I hear the only thing they'll let you build in the flood zone is industrial stuff, which makes sense. Too bad if you happen to live in an area that's dead flat for hours in any direction, like most places west of Toowomba. The ones we really feel sorry for up here are the people around Grantham and Murphy's Creek at the bottom of the Toowoomba hill. Who could have imagined an inland tsunami, it's just unheard of. There were two quick thinking brothers there who launched their tinny in the backyard and rescued about 16 people in just a few minutes. All we did was clean up.

Don, lucky indeed that you left when you did, but if you'd still been there you know your house and shed would have been first and second on our list anyway. If we can look on the bright side, it's a good opportunity to clean up a shed properly, I reckon the floor of the Barnes Auto shed hasn't been this clean in years. Shame about the rest of it. The company also has an admin building at West End. How unlucky is that? Both places went under!

Was at Bunnings this afternoon. Apparently some people are now trying to return the cleanup gear they bought the other day.

Cheers
Dave

[Lynchy]

Went to Bunnings this morning as well Dave. It's the first time I've seen a security guard at the front door. There must be some looting going on. I did hear from a copper neighbour who is in the dog squad that they caught some guys looting the flooded Bunnings on Blunder Road (not far from Don's old place).

[DON NOBLE]

sattelite pic taken On the day the floods had peaked in the morning . Our house was the one with the big green tree growing over the roof , and thats the green 5000 ltr tank I had put in , Its now on its side in the neighbours front yard
http://www.nearmap.com/?ll=-27.55817,15 ... d=20110113

[Stayt`ie]

While its good to see everyone pitching in and helping out those who have had the waters rise and fall over there lives,,, spare a thought for the poor buggers in Rockhampton, many of them with water still up to their nuts, and higher, having been in this situation for over two weeks, seems to me the world has forgotten them

[momec2]

The moment it hit the big city l noticed that, only the baddest news makes headlines.
Gympie, Rocky, Condamine Maryborough etc all else in Qld forgotten.
Chris