Finally we get the car home

Yesterday we drove the car back home. Two weeks later than planned! But better late than never and with all the excitement of the last couple of weeks, that is a good thing! KISA landed from Newcastle on Friday and Son 19 and I collected him from the airport. We went back to TBS and loaded up the car fridge then headed to the Sunshine Coast. We stayed the night there with Kand G and family and made an early start the next morning.
It was an uneventful trip, and when we got to the south of Rockhampton, we started to see some of the devastation left by the water, which lay around for nearly 2 weeks.
All the grass was dead and covered with river silt. Still some water laying around, it smelled awful.

The now famous roundabout that featured in all the news reports, the water came up to the top of the plinth the bull is on.

There is a park on the south side of Rockhampton, on the outskirts of town. This is how it looks now.

This is the river from the main bridge in the centre of town. Still very high, a week after the water went down.

Photos from Fairfield

Son 25 and the Divine Miss R live in Fairfield, a suburb of Brisbane that was devastated by the flooding. Thankfully, they live in the higher bit, but only just. This photo they sent was taken of the intersection about 6 houses down from them. There is a Coles supermarket in there where Son 19 works doing nightfill. This is the house on the corner, 6 houses away. A bit too close for comfort for this mother! But they said it was kind of exhilerating in a terrifying then relief sort of way!

Next week I will get to talk to them and hopefully get the full story. Until then due to power issues, there have been texts and a short conversation. We tried to drive to them last Thursday but the police were not letting anyone into the area.

More Brisbane Flood Shots

Yesterday afternoon, after the flood peak, I sent a couple of junior reporters out into the danger zone with my camera to get some snaps. As editor that is my perogative! S and I stayed home and watched Matilda on the DVD.
They did very well, and the photos follow. The first few were taken from the cliffs at Kangaroo Point where the TV crews had established themselves.

The coffee shop where the TV crews are must have made an absolute fortune, with the 24 hour coverage by the news and all the sight seers. The next few shots were taken at the Riverside Centre after the water had subsided a bit.

The next few are streets in the CBD. I don't know the area enough to name them, maybe a reader will let me know.

Cleaning up. This is the worst bit as there is no end of nasty stuff. Son 25 says it really stinks, the mud left behind.

Brisbane flood pictures near where we are

Due to the floods in Central Queensland, we came to a halt on our journey home from Narooma in Brisbane. TBS kindly put us up and KISA had to fly home on the Saturday to return to work on the Sunday. Because the airlines were charging $500 a ticket one way that day, I elected to stay in Brisbane till the fares became more sensible. I booked for Friday the 14th January. Lots of other people were in the same boat, it seemed.
I planned a social schedule and had the whole week accounted for. Then on Monday it began to rain very heavily. We all know what happened in Toowoomba and what followed. I don't need to write about it.
Today, once it was safe to do so, we ventured out, early, to have a look around our area.
This is the end of Brisbane Street, Bulimba. The ferry terminal pontoon, which floats, is just to the left, Usually, even on a high tide, that is a downward walk on the pontoon. Here you can see it is going up. Many of these pontoons dislodged and floated down the river. The Brisbane City Cat will be out of action for months, while they fix the infrastructure. This sailing boat, is travelling downriver on the current. There is a guy in it, but he is just steering it around obstacles. Where he is going with that is anyones' guess. Looks dangerous, considering all the debris that was floating by.

This is a pontoon, there were lots of these. Some were from private homes that have river frontage, some had boats still attached, and some were ferry terminal pontoons.

This was at the park behind the Colmslie Hockey Park. You can see a buildup of flood debris.

Just to prove I was there....

Steps to?? I have not been to this spot before so I don't know where the water ususally is. It was very muddy and flowing fast.

This is a boat ramp. The river had gone down a little by this stage. There is to be another peak in a couple of hours from now, as I write this.

Most people are still coming to terms with what has happened, and it has only just begun. The clean up will be very traumatic for all concerned, and even those of us who were ok, are shell shocked by this