It's Raining, It's Pouring.....It's Flooding



The Bruce Highway as seen from Aldi, near McDonalds.

The flood disaster that I've been watching unfold in the rest of Queensland has finally hit home.

It was rather ironic that for a town that so easily floods, it took this long, but from Saturday the warnings were flowing in. I and everyone else in town were frantically stocking up with groceries.

I knew that my house would be okay and I'd still be able to get to the shops, unlike others, but as all roads out of town are cut, I knew the shops would run out quickly.

I got up early Monday and spent the morning helping the staff at Best and Less clear out their store (I was thinking of you, Amos).

The afternoon was spent helping the convenience store down the road clear out everything. No one knew how high the flood was going to reach, estimations were for a peak of 20m but no one wanted to take any chances. Both places had flooded 1.5m deep in the last major flood.

Breaths were held overnight but the news was good... a peak of 19.24m.

There was flooding but not as bad as feared.

 Best and Less was fine although the water filled the carpark

Memorial Lane, and the shops along it, was a canal

and there was one huge lake stretching from the river, over the highway

through the park and pool

drowning some shops up to roof level

and through Memorial Park.

Close to home the park across the road was flooded.

You could just see the tops of the swings sticking out.

The convenience store was just spared

but my old Indoor Netball centre next door wasn't so lucky.

The Soccer fields were swamped.

All in all, I feel we've been fairly lucky, although if we get more rain it will rise again.

This has certainly paled in comparison though to the disaster that has hit Toowoomba and the surrounding areas. 9 dead and 66 missing at this time. And Ipswich and Brisbane are preparing for major flooding.

My thoughts go out to all those affected. I hope it doesn't get much worse and the missing are found safe and sound.