Great Barrier Reef at risk as floods muddy the waters. , page 1

So i'm sure you're all probably aware of the floods that are going on throughout QLD, Australia by now?
(No? - Here's a gallery of about 165 pictures - Here)

So currently here's how big it is

Queensland's flood plume stretches 2300km along the coast from Cooktown to Grafton and up to 120km out into the Coral Sea.

Full Article here Coral at risk as floods muddy the barrier reef...

They are saying that alot of the flood waters will bleach the coral and kill up to 90% of the coral, causing the fish and tropical sea life that live amongst it will either die, or disappear. Visibility at Great Keppel island is down to 1m in the water when it's usually 25-30m. Scientists are apparently unsure as to how long it'll take to get it fixed up and thriving again also.

As for my personal opinion - it needs to stop raining! I've made two posts in the past on the rain in QLD www.abovetopsecret.com... and www.abovetopsecret.com...

I can only think of about 4 or 5 sunny days we've had in the last 6 weeks or so. I'm not saying that it's anything to be suspicious of, because we were warned that La Nina would cause alot of wet weather, but as a state, 6 people have already been killed this month (in 10 days) due to flood waters!

I think i'll have to go and scratch the 'sunshine state' part of my licence plate - at least for a few more weeks it'd seem!

reply to post by questcequecest

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Would you believe me & the partner ages ago picked a qld town we thought was inland enough if there was a water issue in the future - the town, Dalby. Fail. Really didn't do our homework with that one! (From today's paper Dalby braced for 5th flood since december)

(edit to add, water issue is some sort of apocalyptic tsunami that would never happen - luckily as my chosen town is crap! ;p)

reply to post by questcequecest

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The only time it will be under water if the whole land goes below sea level or the sea level rises. All this water will be gone underground and in to the ocean waters. But it will take time, so as for now it is under water for many parts. Imagine all the sewage water and chemicals from various sources runs down in the rivers and in to the sea near by killing most of those coral sea life.

reply to post by bkaust

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The floods are spreading, still. About 10 minutes ago I was listening to a queenslander on the radio who called in saying it had reached the gold coast.

Thats really close the the NSW border - that would also make it more than half of QLD affected now right?

(right now) 2 women have been swept away in tawoomba....

gympie is flooding right this minute - people are evacuating many towns right now - the man is describing a 'mini wave' down the main street due to the waters rising SO quickly. I used to live in tin can bay half hours drive from gympie.

People are listening to abc radio AM to know which roads are closing so they can actually escape the floods.

I think we should also mention that areas of W.A have also flooded causing mass damage - though the situation is apparently not as severe.

Gillard may give more to W.A flood victims
W.A flooding cause widespread devistation
W.A roads closed

-B.M

reply to post by bkaust

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hey man, don't we depend on coral for oxygen?

-B.M

Originally posted by B.Morrison
reply to post by bkaust

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hey man, don't we depend on coral for oxygen?

-B.M

The # hits the fan... quite literally.

reply to post by questcequecest

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Nobody may speak of the Bungle Bungles. You should already know that!

you are ruining my escape plan!

Originally posted by B.Morrison
reply to post by bkaust

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hey man, don't we depend on coral for oxygen?

-B.M

I'm actually not sure what it's got to do with oxygen, I know it's vital to helping protect our coast against cyclones, & I've heard it's got a lot of medical uses - Wouldn't surprise me if it was important in many other ways.

Originally posted by B.Morrison
reply to post by bkaust

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The floods are spreading, still. About 10 minutes ago I was listening to a queenslander on the radio who called in saying it had reached the gold coast.

Thats really close the the NSW border - that would also make it more than half of QLD affected now right?

(right now) 2 women have been swept away in tawoomba....

gympie is flooding right this minute - people are evacuating many towns right now - the man is describing a 'mini wave' down the main street due to the waters rising SO quickly. I used to live in tin can bay half hours drive from gympie.

People are listening to abc radio AM to know which roads are closing so they can actually escape the floods.

I think we should also mention that areas of W.A have also flooded causing mass damage - though the situation is apparently not as severe.

Gillard may give more to W.A flood victims
W.A flooding cause widespread devistation
W.A roads closed

-B.M

edit on 10/1/11 by B.Morrison because: (no reason given)

Are you in WA? Yeah Toowoomba copped it SO bad this afternoon/today - I've made another thread in Fragile earth from it - you should check out the video, it's terrifying how quickly that water came through, i've got the worst feeling at the moment as I know a few people up there and down under in the lower towns .

Here's the link to watch the vid Flash floods wreak havoc through toowoomba

Originally posted by bkaust
Are you in WA?

nah mate, S.A actually I've lived everywhere except W.A & N.T which has made me realise that its a radically diverse country we live in...

Yeah Toowoomba copped it SO bad this afternoon/today - I've made another thread in Fragile earth from it - you should check out the video, it's terrifying how quickly that water came through, i've got the worst feeling at the moment as I know a few people up there and down under in the lower towns .

I hope they got out ok & found shelter The doc was saying on the radio before how bizarre it was for a mountain town to flood...? seems bizarre to me. I wonder if Tin can flooded also? there's only one road out of Tin can and its through gympie...if gympies flooded about 200 people will be stuck there.

Here's the link to watch the vid Flash floods wreak havoc through toowoomba

cheers bud, yeah I'll be floating around these threads whenever I'm logged in..

For some reason I've got a feeling that as long as we're dealing with one thing at a time Australia will get through this.

-B.M

Originally posted by squandered
reply to post by questcequecest

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Nobody may speak of the Bungle Bungles. You should already know that!

you are ruining my escape plan!

The bungle bungles sure would be cool if they had some caves....

-B.M

reply to post by Agit8dChop

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that a good point/ question and maybe some of the info I discovered today can help answer that for you -

in W.A the people *were* set to recieve 15,000 dollar support packets..

In QLD I *believe* it was $26,000.

Now 200,000 people *were* homeless days ago - that number has likely increased substantially since then.

Those 'packets' aren't really going to go very far.

Only a small percentage of those affected would be living in towns prone to flooding.

Some houses I saw in flood prone towns were built on massive 'stilts' that kept it above flood waters should it flood.

Not everyone was unprepared - not everyone could have prepared at all ...

Currently - according to witnesses on the streets - the sunshine coast & gold coast 2 major tourist spots in QLD - are flooding.

Those places have never flooded as far as I'm aware.

I'm just saying that while I agree your point is a valid one - these floods are a little different to anything we've dealt with before - the scale of destruction is already massive - and if the black water events & things like the coral risk mentioned here eventuate - there will be long term problems created for other states too - S.A, VIC, NSW.

-B.M

reply to post by Agit8edChop

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Yeah, alot of them are in 'Queenslanders' the beautiful old homes built on stilts - unfortunately, the weather with certain places today, the water ripped the stilts right out from under them!

I can't explain why people would stay living on a flood plain. But If i'd spent my life somewhere raising a family & working on the land there, i'd feel it was owed to stay and clean up? Generations staying because they simply couldn't find work or settle elsewhere, or guilt that they don't want to leave the farms that earlier family generations worked so hard to keep up? Just my idea.

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