BRISBANE, AUSTRALIA – As the Brisbane River's
water level reaches its peak, 70,000 residents of
Australia's third-largest city are without power,
and conditions won't improve anytime soon, an
official said.
The waters poured into Brisbane, topping traffic
lights on some streets, after marching across
Queensland state for weeks. Roads shut
throughout the city, and people moved about in
kayaks, rowboats and even on surfboards. Boats
torn from their moorings floated down an
engorged river.
Residents of the city's low-lying areas headed in
the thousands for higher ground, while others
chose to ride it out.
In a statement from the Queensland state police,
"the Brisbane River has now reached its peak" as
the flood depth from an official weather bureau
water gauge in the center of the city measured
close to 15 feet, according to Reuters.
Some neighbors in East Brisbane fired up a
barbecue, put some beer on ice and starting
grilling sausages while watching the water spill
from a picturesque creek and creep up the gentle
slope toward their homes.
"We're having a bit of a barbecue because we've
got no electricity," said Bob Vilgan, an 80-
something dressed like most of the neighbors in
shorts, a T-shirt and sandals. "The idea is to get
everyone fed who is in with our crowd, have a
few tiny tipples and get back home."
The flooding, which has killed 22 people since late
November, has submerged dozens of towns --
some three times -- and left an area the size of
Germany and France combined under water.
Highways and rail lines have been washed away
in the disaster, which is shaping up to Australia's
costliest ever.
With at least 43 people missing, the death toll is
expected to rise. Many of those unaccounted for
disappeared from around Toowoomba, a city
west of Brisbane that saw massive flash floods
sweep away cars, road signs and people. Twelve
died in that flood alone.
The toll has shocked Australians, no strangers to
deadly natural disasters like the wildfires that killed
173 in a single day two years ago.
One tale has particularly transfixed the country: a
13-year-old boy caught in the flood who told
strangers to save his 10-year-old brother first and
died as a result.
Jordan and Blake Rice were in the car with their
mother, Donna, when a wall of water pummeled
Toowoomba on Monday. After the torrent of
water knocked one rescuer over, another man
managed to reach the car, The Australian
newspaper reported. At Jordan's insistence, he
pulled Blake out first, according to a third brother,
Kyle.
"Courage kicked in, and he would rather his little
brother would live," the 16-year-old told the
newspaper. Jordan and his mother were washed
away before the men were able to get back to
them. By Wednesday, Jordan's name was
among the top 10 most used terms on Twitter,
as a wave of tweets hailed him as a "true hero" of
the Queensland floods.
In contrast to the wall of water that swallowed
Toowoomba, Brisbane's crisis has been marked
by the waters' slow but steady progress.
"I was quite panicked after seeing Toowoomba,"
said Ali Cook, one of the neighbors at the East
Brisbane barbecue. "But it's been such a slow
rise. It's still rising quite a lot."
On Wednesday, emergency sirens blared across
Brisbane as the floodwaters entered an empty
downtown and began swamping
neighborhoods.
The surging, muddy waters reached the tops of
traffic lights in some parts of Brisbane, and Mayor
Campbell Newman said at least 20,000 homes
would likely be damaged. Brisbane's office
buildings stood empty Wednesday with the
normally bustling central business district
transformed into a watery ghost town.
Police went door-to-door in some
neighborhoods advising people to leave. Five
evacuation centers were open with room for
16,000 people.
The Brisbane River is expected to reach its height
on Thursday, at a depth slightly lower the that of
1974 floods that swept the city. Bligh said the
news was welcome, but of little comfort.
"This is still a major event, the city is much
bigger, much more populated and has many
parts under flood that didn't even exist in 1974,"
she said. "We are still looking at an event which
will cripple parts of our city."
The waters have overwhelmed a dam built to
protect the city after the 1974 deluge. Officials
have opened the floodgates of the dam to
prevent a greater disaster, contributing to the
flooding downtown.
Though the full extent of the damage won't be
known until the water is gone, even before
Brisbane was threatened, Queensland Premier
Anna Bligh estimated a cleanup and rebuilding to
total around $5 billion.
Add to that, the damage to economy:
Queensland's coal industry has virtually shut
down, costing millions in deferred exports and
sending global prices higher. Vegetables, fruit and
sugarcane crops in the rich agricultural region
have been wiped out, and prices are due to
skyrocket as a result.
Water levels were expected to stay at peak levels
until at least Saturday, but many people won't be
able to access their homes for several days
beyond that, Bligh said.
Energex, Brisbane's main power company,
started switching off electricity to some parts of
the city as a precaution against electrocution.
Almost 70,000 homes were without power
across Queensland by Wednesday afternoon,
Bligh said.
Residents who had spent two days preparing
took cover on higher ground while others
scrambled to move their prized possessions to
the top floors of their homes. Some stacked
furniture on their roofs. Supermarkets, which had
experienced a run on bottled water, food and
other goods in the previous days, stayed closed
on Wednesday.
Darren Marchant spent all day moving furniture
and other household goods to the top floor of his
home, near the river in the low-lying Brisbane
suburb of Yeronga. He and two neighbors
watched in awe as dozens of expensive boats
and pontoons drifted past.
"We were watching all kinds of debris floating
down the river -- one of the (neighbor's)
pontoons just floated off," he said Wednesday. "It
was amazing."
West of Brisbane, the city of Ipswich, home to
about 15,000 people, 3,000 properties were
swamped by the waters heading Brisbane's way,
and 1,100 people had fled to evacuation centers,
Mayor Paul Pisasale said. The floods also reached
further into New South Wales, causing about
3,000 people to leave their homes there.
In Ipswich, video showed horses swimming
through the brown waters, pausing to rest their
heads on the roof of a house -- the only dry spot
they could reach.
Source: Http://www.foxnews.com/world/2011/01/11/floods-hit-brisbane-australias-rd-largest-city/?test=latestnews
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