Flash flood wreaks havoc through Toowoomba Video

From mates in the area, Gatton has been ordered to evac - Lowood roads are flooding but the town is still ok. SES is texting & calling everyone in the affected areas and telling them to move.

Two dead, others at risk in Toowoomba

reply to post by bkaust


My Brother-in-law wasn't evacuated from Gatton, but he watched the cars, furniture and rubbish flowing down the river.
This facebook page is where the locals are keeping in touch:
www.facebook.com...
It's the Queensland Police Service page
I was using it last night when we thought we were in trouble on the north side.

Originally posted by spearhead
Two dead, others at risk in Toowoomba

Four dead now

reply to post by bkaust


What can i say but get ready and hope you can find some higher ground.I am starting to break out the tin food and the tin hat because something doesnt add up with that Toowoomba event.Even old timers around me are saying that something aint right,and they have been through many Qld floods.

reply to post by 12voltz


It's as if one valley took 300mm of rain in 90 minutes. Rainfall averages don't account for that sort of freakish nature.

Thank you for starting this Thread and the Members posting up to date information

I avoid MSM reporting as much as possible

I was grocery shopping today and the check out lady was telling me about it, she had only just returned from toowoomba late yesterday (visiting her sister and her family)

Shes simply stunned, feels weird how only yesterday everything seemed okay and click of the fingers such devastation (her sister and her family are fine btw)

The Brisbane table showing affected suburbs are mostly surburbs around the Brisbane River

I cant possibly imagine what residents are going through

Although I do vaguely remember the 74 floods and cyclone in Brisbane as a child

What Ive learned from the Victorian Fires and recent flood affected areas in QLD
(video confirming)

Plastic water tanks melt in fire = unreliable
Plastic water tanks float away when there is flooding = unreliable

^^^ PS some times people deal with tragic events in their own way

reply to post by spearhead


yep, but they didn't get that much
Here are todays obs for Toowoomba: www.bom.gov.au...
We had less than that last night down Caboolture way, and I was amazed at the flash flooding happening around us.

They did warn us Queenslanders early spring to expect heavy wet this summer season than ever before

They did inform us; severe weather, heavy rain, storms, extreme winds, flooding, damage etc

Originally posted by zenius
reply to post by spearhead

 

yep, but they didn't get that much
Here are todays obs for Toowoomba: www.bom.gov.au...
We had less than that last night down Caboolture way, and I was amazed at the flash flooding happening around us.

edit on 10-1-2011 by zenius because: edit

Since last week, we noticed the recent heavy down pour is more than ever (previously before xmas)
We also noticed how quickly back yards flooded and to the extent it flooded and dept



It is amazing how quickly it can happen, especially when one goes by past rain falls and predicting flooding for your own area... but this last week, was kinda but I still say not as when last year (not xmas time) our streets flooded in my area and we were watching ducks swim by our front drive ways lolol

reply to post by spearhead


Yeah that amount of rain in that time is off the scale,We had 300mm but it was spread over 12 hours.Someone must have opened the flood gates at the local dam.Probably nothing but ?
www.thechronicle.com.au...
Perseverance Dam is now full
7th January 2011



UPDATE: Perseverance Dam flowed over the spillway at 2.05pm today for the first time in almost 10 years.
www.thechronicle.com.au...
About 10am today Cooby Dam started spilling as it reached 107% capacity.

The toll is now 7 people.

Seven people are dead after a raging torrent of water swept through the city of Toowoomba in south-east Queensland this afternoon.

Heavy rain caused major flash flooding and landslides in the Darling Downs city, with more than 160 millimetres of rain falling in the region over the past 36 hours - most of it falling on an already saturated catchment.

Seven dead as raging torrent swamps Toowoomba.

reply to post by sanctum


Just watched the live stream with Bligh & Police commissioner which started at 10pm adn finished 10 minutes ago. They only confirmed 4 dead but a minimum of 6 missing:
Dalby peaking higher than last event. Chinchilla rising again and expected above 7m again. condamine on watch, river rising and by end of week could be at 14 m mark which means total town evacuation. Meandarra evacuating. Gatton river rose ...9m. 4 deaths confirmed at Toowoomba. Murphy's creek, 2 deaths. 30 people at Granthom uncontactable held up in primary school. Grave fears for them atm. 6 missing around Withcott. People stranded and been rescued from rooftops at Withcott, but conditions have grounded all but one helicopter now to rescue remaining there. Warrego Hwy cut. May cause supply issues. ADF start search & rescue in the morning as well as continuiing rescue efforts. --Anna Bligh

Police Commissioner: Describes Toowoomba as inland Tsunami. Grave concerns for those at Withcott & Grantham. Concerns also for emergency service personel & police who are out there tonight in treacherous conditions. Still looking for people... swept away in trapped vehicles from toowoomba. Water level in river is dropping beind as it goes. Heading toward lowood and will join Brisbane river in 12 hours, then moggill in another 12 hours then brisbane 12 hours after that. More rain expected tonight. Chincilla, Dalby and Condamine expecting more rain.

Does anyone know if comms in toowoomba are down? Trying to get in touch with a few people I know there.

reply to post by Yissachar1


Not sure about land lines, but people have been on their mobile phones and facebook who are in Toowoomba.

reply to post by Yissachar1


In the news conference at 10 PM the QLD state premier and Police Commissioner both stated that communications were not good.
It’s fairly possible that phone lines in the Toowoomba area are mostly down.
Hope your mates are Ok.

Thanks so much Zenius for the update, we didn't get to see Anna Bligh talk. I hope it's just comms down in Tbar tonight as i've got a friend with a missing family member up there, but if others can't get through, hopefully it's just a network problem.

Haven't heard back from any of the people I know in affected areas, hopefully that means they have gotten out or are in the process of getting out now. My newspaper site hasn't updated in over an hour now, I guess news stops for the courier mail when it's bedtime :S But i'll try and keep the updates going with what I find when i'm up.

I'm really not looking forward to hearing the morning news, I have a feeling it's going to get much much worse. I really hope the 7 deaths aren't confirmed, I thought they were until you said they hadn't Zenius, so i'll remain hopeful!

reply to post by TheKingsVillian


Me too.

Cheers

Time diff too. Im uk based. Must be late there now.

Emergency services probably rightly priority in comms, but after seeing those cars swept away with people still inside i wont be surprised if there is more casualties.

And then there is the main route out of toowoomba to bris, hope nobody got caught out driving in or out on the steep mountain part before the city...

reply to post by Yissachar1


That's why i'm not looking forward to updating this tomorrow morning I can't see how there won't be more missing, especially if it ripped houses along with it - how can anyone escape water that powerful?

At Murphys Creek in the Lockyer Valley a man and a male child had also died, after being washed away in, or from a house, Ms Bligh said.

According to this article in the Toowoomba Chronicle it looks as if there could be at least 6 confirmed missing and up to 30 people that were in a primary school seeking shelter and are currently unreachable - I hope they are safe & dry and not missing/dead or sitting on a roof in the dark surrounded by water. The river rose by 9 METRES in the space of this afternoon (it's 1130pm now)

I've had a bad feeling about all this rain the last 2-3 days, and I still feel like it's going to get worse again. I can't imagine what the cost for all of this damage will add up to at the end of it all! We are lucky, our home isn't on the flood maps, but how many thousands of people has this hurt! So so many families have lost everything.

I said it in my other threads that it's going to be a massive shock to the folks that have retired from down south and moved up here and bought on alot of low-lying land, just recently in the past 2-3 years, they have built several lots of $500k and up townhouses in several areas that went completley under in 74' - the next couple of days are going to show that that was probably not the best idea.

Yeah i was up at my holiday house in marysville in the Bushfires and they honestly need to leave, even if they think it is fine. Leave. What i went through was a totally different disaster, but they both move quick and are deadly. Dont wait before it is too late. Learn from the fires. Dont rely on the emergency services to tell you to leave, if you are in danger leave.