It must have rained every day in December. Winter was mild, spring was comfortable but summer quickly turned wet. By the time Christmas came around, I just expected it to rain every day. Sure enough, we had a wet Christmas, wet Boxing Day, and not much better into the New Year. Somehow, it just never crossed my mind that all that rain might add up to something.
On Tuesday the 11th of January, we first heard about the disaster in Toowoomba, a good 120k from Brisbane. The city is located on the side of a mountain but a torrential downpour caused what was later called an inland tsunami. A wall of water about two meters high came ripping through the downtown area of the city, taking everything in its path. Home videos and camera phones showed cars being easily swept away, some with people still inside.
Toowoomba and much of the surrounding Lockyer Valley all drain towards the Brisbane river. It didn't take long for meteorologists and disaster management teams to predict terrible flooding as more water accumulated into the Brisbane river. After the 1974 flood, the Wivenhoe Dam was built outside of Brisbane that supposedly would keep another flood from reaching the city. Unfortunately, the same dam which was nearly empty two years ago, which scientists said would take 10 years of above average rainfall to reach 100% capacity, reached near the 200% capacity mark and had no choice but to give controlled releases to prevent a massive overflow. Between the surge coming from the Lockyer Valley and the overflowing Wivenhoe Dam, several Sydney Harbours worth of water were going to pass through Brisbane in a matter of about 72 hours.
That afternoon, a message went out at my office to tell everyone to pack up and go home. I didn't honestly think it would flood that badly in the city, especially considering my place of work and our apartment are at least five or ten meters above the river. Roadways and railways were filling up with people trying to get home before the flooding started and transportation lines were closed. I got home about noon and turned on the news. All the national stations were tuned to flood coverage. The early word was that waters were already high and would continue rising into Wednesday, peaking some time on Thursday. To make matters worse, the huge amounts of rainwater coming downstream were being matched by a king tide.
Our building is on the river, though it sits slightly higher than some of the neighboring buildings. A look out our balcony that afternoon showed the river was already at its banks and was beginning to cover the pedestrian sidewalks that line both sides of the river throughout the entire CBD area. The rest of the day was a bit anti-climactic, though interesting objects were already starting to float down the river. Pontoons (what I would usually refer to as docks) would float by one after the other, some with covered boats and lawn chairs still on them. There was an amazing amount of debris from trees, plants and manmade structures. Huge chunks of polystyrene (Styrofoam) would float along at the fast pace of the river. It was already churning quite a bit with little whirlpools along the edges and near rapids in the middle.
That evening I got in touch with friends to make sure everyone was alright. Several had either evacuated or had decided to wait it out, knowing they lived on a high floor. They knew it might be a few days before they could leave but didn't want to stay in an evacuation center. I went down to the river after dark and watched the river for a bit. It was a bit strange, feeling like you're in the middle of a natural disaster and yet there was no panic, no sense of urgency. A few others were down there as well, watching unmanned boats float by.
The next morning the river was up considerably. It really started to raise quite quickly at this point and I knew it would be days before I was back at work again. My client occupies one of the buildings on the river and I could see the water line getting close to the building, even with a further one to two meters of flooding still to come. I watched more news coverage and decided to go out that afternoon to take a few pictures and let everyone know I was alright. By this time, the floating walkway that connects the CBD to New Farm, one of my favorite running trails, was destroyed. It buckled under the pressure from the river and the constant debris hitting and pushing against it. I watched several of our favorite restaurants go under water. Jellyfish, where we've had great seafood, Groove Train, which we've visited a number of times and the Boardwalk, our favorite place for a beer after work, were all gone. I later heard they weren't able to get insurance because of their locations right on the river and that they may never be back.
All throughout the day, the debris kept getting bigger and weirder. I watched a local restaurant float by. Perhaps the strangest thing I saw went floating by at dusk. About 6pm I heard a loud whistling noise that I assumed must have been some kind of boat. I went out to the balcony to have a look and saw something large and white coming into view from down the river. As it got closer, I realized it was a LPG tank! (liquid propane) This wasn't the small home barbecue size, this was the 20 foot long gas station size tank. Not a minute after it passed the apartment, I could smell the gas 200 feet in the air. I stood there for a few minutes just waiting to hear an explosion but nothing happened. At some point it must have simply run out of gas and floated into the bay, like everything else.
I woke up Thursday morning and took a few pictures of the river at its peak. It was such a beautiful sunny morning but looking out the window was just so odd. The walkway from our building all the way to the botanic gardens was completely submerged, my client's building was clearly flooded, Kangaroo Point had taken on enough water to submerge a few unlucky cars, the ferry stop across from us was destroyed and perhaps the worst part, the floating walkway had broken away and become a missile floating down the river. A few local tug boat captains managed to corral it and escort it down the river and out to sea.
I went out again that day. Our building was very lucky throughout the ordeal because unlike most of our neighbors and many of our friends around the city, we had power. We did however lose the elevators. I went to New Farm to have a look at the damage and ended up helping a few guys carry a kayak full of ice back to edge of the water. The only way they could get in and out of their place was in a boat.
The water receded quickly Thursday night and into Friday. By Friday night, I left for Sydney to meet Carol for the weekend and was more than ready to take a break from 24 - 7 flood coverage. I did get a chance to see some of the cleanup before leaving town and was very impressed by the Queenslanders sense of mateship and resolve to get things done. Volunteers were everywhere and everyone was lending a hand. It was amazing how quickly many people were able to get back to their lives and move on.
It's been several weeks now and things definitely aren't 100% back to the way they were. Nearly every construction project around the city has been delayed or possibly cancelled. The floating walkway is gone and there's no indication if they're going to rebuild. The Eagle Street Pier area is still closed off, which between that and floating walkway have severly limited my running routes. City Cat and City Ferry services finally returned to the river, one month later, though it may be longer for stations that were destroyed. At my client site, we had to roll out our full disaster recovery plan. There are still some leftover issues to resolve, especially with technology that was based in Brisbane.
The floods have been an experience I will always remember. I would never wish a natural disaster on anyone, but I'm glad I was here to experience it.
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