Rarely has it been that the words of the poem by Dorothea MacKellar could be so apt as now, with much of SE Australia flooded, following on from similar floods last year and coming after many years of drought. These are very serious floods....... and there is plenty of coverage on the media eg
www.abc.net.au
Spare a thought and a prayer for them. A long way from us, but we have had our share this wet season too.
My Country by Dorothea Mackellar
The love of field and coppice,
Of green and shaded lanes,
Of ordered woods and gardens,
Is running in your veins.
Strong love of grey-blue distance,
Brown streams and soft, dim skies --
I know but cannot share it,
My love is otherwise.
I love a sunburnt country,
A land of sweeping plains,
Of ragged mountain ranges,
Of droughts and flooding rains.
I love her far horizons,
I love her jewel-sea,
Her beauty and her terror --The wide brown land for me!
The stark white ring-barked forests,
All tragic to the moon,
The sapphire-misted mountain,
The hot gold hush of noon.
Green tangle of the brushes,
Where lithe lianas coil,
And orchids deck the tree tops
And ferns the warm dark soil.
Core of my heart, my country!
Her pitiless blue sky,
When sick at heart, around us,
We see the cattle die --
But then the grey clouds gather,
And we can bless again
The drumming of an army,
The steady, soaking rain.
Core of my heart, my country!
Land of the Rainbow Gold,
For flood and fire and famine,
She pays us back three-fold.
Over the thirsty paddocks,
Watch, after many days,
The filmy veil of greenness
That thickens as we gaze . . .
An opal-hearted country,
A wilful, lavish land --
All you who have not loved her,
You will not understand --
Though earth holds many splendours,
Wherever I may die,
I know to what brown country
My homing thoughts will fly.
Showing posts with label floods. Show all posts
Showing posts with label floods. Show all posts
Sunday, 4 March 2012
Wednesday, 16 February 2011
RAIN - A Lot of It!
I am composing this late in the evening of February 16. On a pretty wild and blustery evening, with Tropical Cyclone Carlos hovering around Darwin - moving a little, but not often, and delivering a lot of rain.
In the 24 hours to 0900 today, rainfall around Darwin was mostly in the 250 - 380mm range with tops being 435mm. Our rain gauge certainly overflowed several times........and I have used the 435mm as our rainfall, as the site with this recording and ours, are usually very similar on a daily basis. Most areas close to the ocean front - and that is us, received much more rain than the official recording site of the Met Bureau at the airport, which had 340mm of rain recorded.
That is a LOT of rain.........and since then, about another 150mm has fallen today so far. Might exceed 200mm by 0900 tomorrow, the official "time to record". And more of the same is expected tomorrow too........
Biblical rain.......anyone for a new ark???
The creek below our street flooded across the road and into some houses at both high tides today, and last night there was mayhem with quite a few cars washed across the road, and a driver left hanging onto the traffic lights to stop being washed away. The airport has been closed since yesterday - wind too strong for aircraft operations, and may not re-open before Friday or Saturday.
And yes, it was a new alltime daily rain total for Darwin.......officially.... at the Met Bureau site at the airport, even though a bit less than our area.
The past 36 hours has seen wild wind around Darwin, although maximum gusts have only been around 100km/hr, about normal for a Category 1 cyclone. But it has just continued incessantly over that long period. Usually, it all over in 6 - 12 hours........but more is still to come. Wind has eased a little this evening, although it seems to have intensified a little in the past hour. But with Cyclone Carlos hanging around and doing loops around Darwin I guess we will get more wind than a normal "passing through" cyclone.
Lots of fallen trees, a few submerged cars, many roads impassable due to trees down as well as rain, swollen creeks and drains.
One fantastic point - and thank you NT Government - has been continuing electricity supply in our area, an area recently converted to underground electricity power, which the NT Government funded. Some areas around Darwin with overhead supply have been without power since last night, and might be so for a few days yet. Mainly due to wires damaged from falling trees.
Still more to come.......
In the 24 hours to 0900 today, rainfall around Darwin was mostly in the 250 - 380mm range with tops being 435mm. Our rain gauge certainly overflowed several times........and I have used the 435mm as our rainfall, as the site with this recording and ours, are usually very similar on a daily basis. Most areas close to the ocean front - and that is us, received much more rain than the official recording site of the Met Bureau at the airport, which had 340mm of rain recorded.
That is a LOT of rain.........and since then, about another 150mm has fallen today so far. Might exceed 200mm by 0900 tomorrow, the official "time to record". And more of the same is expected tomorrow too........
Biblical rain.......anyone for a new ark???
The creek below our street flooded across the road and into some houses at both high tides today, and last night there was mayhem with quite a few cars washed across the road, and a driver left hanging onto the traffic lights to stop being washed away. The airport has been closed since yesterday - wind too strong for aircraft operations, and may not re-open before Friday or Saturday.
And yes, it was a new alltime daily rain total for Darwin.......officially.... at the Met Bureau site at the airport, even though a bit less than our area.
The past 36 hours has seen wild wind around Darwin, although maximum gusts have only been around 100km/hr, about normal for a Category 1 cyclone. But it has just continued incessantly over that long period. Usually, it all over in 6 - 12 hours........but more is still to come. Wind has eased a little this evening, although it seems to have intensified a little in the past hour. But with Cyclone Carlos hanging around and doing loops around Darwin I guess we will get more wind than a normal "passing through" cyclone.
Lots of fallen trees, a few submerged cars, many roads impassable due to trees down as well as rain, swollen creeks and drains.
One fantastic point - and thank you NT Government - has been continuing electricity supply in our area, an area recently converted to underground electricity power, which the NT Government funded. Some areas around Darwin with overhead supply have been without power since last night, and might be so for a few days yet. Mainly due to wires damaged from falling trees.
Still more to come.......
Thursday, 13 January 2011
Floods Continue in Queensland
Another day, another flood it seems in the land of the banana bender.
Floods continue across the Brisbane region and will for several more days, maybe even a week in some areas before the water goes away. Then there is the task of cleaning up houses and businesses, and that will take weeks. Some premises will never be habitable again.......ever!
And it is a moveable feast with SW Queensland now being flooded with Goondiwindi and Boggabilla [in NSW but closeby] being evacuated.
There are floods across the state border into NSW as well - along the coastal rivers, serious, but it seems not quite to record breaking levels - just below in many areas. Have relatives there, but know they are well above flood levels, on Riley's Hill [ literally] south of Ballina, NSW.
The stories are developing already, with a great one today about Doug and Mavis the tugboat [google that and see for yourself] and it is a feel good story too. There will be many more; many, many more to come.
Come on Queensland.........you will recover!!!
Floods continue across the Brisbane region and will for several more days, maybe even a week in some areas before the water goes away. Then there is the task of cleaning up houses and businesses, and that will take weeks. Some premises will never be habitable again.......ever!
And it is a moveable feast with SW Queensland now being flooded with Goondiwindi and Boggabilla [in NSW but closeby] being evacuated.
There are floods across the state border into NSW as well - along the coastal rivers, serious, but it seems not quite to record breaking levels - just below in many areas. Have relatives there, but know they are well above flood levels, on Riley's Hill [ literally] south of Ballina, NSW.
The stories are developing already, with a great one today about Doug and Mavis the tugboat [google that and see for yourself] and it is a feel good story too. There will be many more; many, many more to come.
Come on Queensland.........you will recover!!!
Tuesday, 11 January 2011
Floods in SE Queensland
Floods are expected in Brisbane tomorrow. And Ipswich is flooding tonight.
Last major floods were in 1974, and after that a new flood mitigation dam - Wivenhoe Dam was built on the upper Brisbane river, hopefully to prevent further flooding. It is now overfull, after being effectively empty a year ago or so, and water has been released under direction, although it will smooth out flood heights.
A record breaking intense La Nina event [http://www.abc.net.au/unleashed/42858.html] has brought unprecendented rain to SE Queensland, with horrific scenes all over the media outlets today of disastrous flash flooding in Toowoomba and the upper reaches of the Brisbane river, and despite the dam, that water is going into the Brisbane River. There are seasonal high tides also this week, and by Thursday, some 9000 homes as well as another 14000 business premises are expected to be flooded in Brisbane alone, with more in Ipswich [one third of all houses].
There are numerous images and stories across the media outlets - they do that stuff very well, so go and look.
I have been impressed by the savvy performance of a numer of Queensland ministers of state as well as senior officials in police, emergency services and related areas. The Premier Anna Bligh has spoken well, as has the Police and Emergency Services Minister, in stark contrast to the situation in Victoria during the dreadful fires there a few years ago. These two especially deserve congratulations on both their media appearances [several scheduled per day] as well as oversight of the various service departments operational in this situation.
While terribly difficult as these situations are, it does seem under efficient management and things are happening efficiently and effectively. No doubt the volunteeer crews deserve a lot of praise too.
One of our sons lives in Brisbane, and so far seems to be ok. Their house seems likely to be above predicted flood levels, based on available mapping. BUT......conditions are variable, changeable and a bit of an unknown. Our thoughts go out to them.
One can prepare only so much......and I have no doubt that the next issue in Brisbane for many people will be loss of power, for short or maybe longer time. They are turning off the power in some central city areas already. I hope they prepare well.
Living in an active cyclone zone ourselves, preparing for emergencies is an ongoing issue and we have, as well, been through a few modest as well as larger, fiercer cyclones. So we know a little about emergency preparation and coping.
There is nothing like the real event though.
If you are in a warm, dry place.........think about those in this region who may not be, or who are in emergency shelters.
Last major floods were in 1974, and after that a new flood mitigation dam - Wivenhoe Dam was built on the upper Brisbane river, hopefully to prevent further flooding. It is now overfull, after being effectively empty a year ago or so, and water has been released under direction, although it will smooth out flood heights.
A record breaking intense La Nina event [http://www.abc.net.au/unleashed/42858.html] has brought unprecendented rain to SE Queensland, with horrific scenes all over the media outlets today of disastrous flash flooding in Toowoomba and the upper reaches of the Brisbane river, and despite the dam, that water is going into the Brisbane River. There are seasonal high tides also this week, and by Thursday, some 9000 homes as well as another 14000 business premises are expected to be flooded in Brisbane alone, with more in Ipswich [one third of all houses].
There are numerous images and stories across the media outlets - they do that stuff very well, so go and look.
I have been impressed by the savvy performance of a numer of Queensland ministers of state as well as senior officials in police, emergency services and related areas. The Premier Anna Bligh has spoken well, as has the Police and Emergency Services Minister, in stark contrast to the situation in Victoria during the dreadful fires there a few years ago. These two especially deserve congratulations on both their media appearances [several scheduled per day] as well as oversight of the various service departments operational in this situation.
While terribly difficult as these situations are, it does seem under efficient management and things are happening efficiently and effectively. No doubt the volunteeer crews deserve a lot of praise too.
One of our sons lives in Brisbane, and so far seems to be ok. Their house seems likely to be above predicted flood levels, based on available mapping. BUT......conditions are variable, changeable and a bit of an unknown. Our thoughts go out to them.
One can prepare only so much......and I have no doubt that the next issue in Brisbane for many people will be loss of power, for short or maybe longer time. They are turning off the power in some central city areas already. I hope they prepare well.
Living in an active cyclone zone ourselves, preparing for emergencies is an ongoing issue and we have, as well, been through a few modest as well as larger, fiercer cyclones. So we know a little about emergency preparation and coping.
There is nothing like the real event though.
If you are in a warm, dry place.........think about those in this region who may not be, or who are in emergency shelters.
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