Flood Waters Receeding

We are still safe as we are watching the waters slowly recede. Hopefully today, Friday, we can go out and see the world outside our building a little. Bob was told to continue to work from home on Friday and Monday as cleanup in the City Business District (CBD) will take some time.

The flood waters that hit us were not the waters from the north that we heard about before arriving but from the west. In Toowoomba which is west of Brisbane they had what is described as a freak storm that produced a wall of water (some are calling it an inland tsunami)which rushed through and continued on down the valley toward Ipswich and Brisbane. The damn that was built after the 1974 flood was 140% capacity and they had to open the gates to release the waters. We were told that water was the amount equivalent to the water in Sydney Harbor. Thankfully the water levels were less than were predicted.  The latest we heard was the river peaked at 4.5 meters (12-13 ft) instead of the 5.5 estimation.

It has been so sad to watch on television the devastation of people’s homes and lives. Some towns west of here just recovered from a post Christmas flood to experience flooding all over again. Roads are still closed and some supplies are hard to get to the people.

While we may not be able to experience and visit some of the places we would like, we are so thankful that we are safe and well and together. Please continue to pray for Queensland and the people here as they continue to recover from this devastating event.

Pontoon decking that broke loose from its mooring,
dozens of these went by.
They say the bay looks like a junk yard.

One of the many unmanned boats we saw float by.
Another boat slowly sank as it went down the river.