A couple of years ago, almost exactly, Toowoomba experienced an above ordinary amount of rain. It was over many days and ended up resulting in the ground being completely saturated and the drains, creeks, rivers and dams all overflowing and causing significant damage to property and loss of lives.
We were not home at that time (January 2011) as we had travelled to Adelaide then along the Great Ocean Road to Melbourne. I remember saying “Toowoomba will not flood, it is on top of a mountain. The day Toowoomba floods, the whole of Queensland is in trouble.”
Most unfortunately, my final statement proved true. Toowoomba did flood… or at least part of it… and the whole of Queensland was in trouble.
Now, given that we were so far away and only seeing some footage on television, I do not have a real understanding of just how much rain it took for that event to occur. How much rain is too much for our beautiful city too handle???
It is now January 2013 and it is raining again. The low pressure cell that was tropical Cyclone Oswald has been downgraded to an ex-cyclone and made its way south, slowly though, dumping many inches of rain as it goes.
We arrived home from our lovely holiday and a fantastic day at Seaworld, late on Friday night having driven through light rain all the way home…it has not stopped raining since.
The rain isn’t particularly heavy, just constant. The wind comes from the east most of the time, with enough force to make the rain almost horizontal…and occasionally with strong gusts…one of which picked up our trampoline and tossed it over. Thankfully no damage was caused but we did don our rain jackets and ventured out to secure it and check the yard for anything else that might move. Our poor little windmill had already had enough though, looking one blade and with another quite bent out of shape.
Feeling secure that our belongings no longer posed a threat to anyone we returned to the comfortable indoors.
I was happy to spend the day indoors: a cupboard full of board games; plenty of scrapbooking to do; movies to watch (once the power came back on) and cleaning (if I got really desperate)… however David had to go out…and not just outside, but had to drive to Brisbane. His boys had been up with us for the holidays and the day had come for them to fly home to Adelaide.
Leaving a couple of hours early so as to be able to travel cautiously and not be late, it was still an anxious journey. Thankfully the roads were all open and they arrived safe and sound. As expected, the airport was impacted by the weather and that meant delays…but better safe than sorry. Eventually they were in the air and David was on his way home.
Living on top of a mountain range logically means that there is a valley and plains beside us. It was this that caused my concern, as water runs downhill the change of the creeks in the valley being overfull and blocking the highway was inevitable. Fortune was with us though as David was able to travel home without delay before the highway was closed.
So now, it its Monday morning… the designated Australia day public holiday, so we are able to stay home…out of the wild weather that continues. Our thoughts are with those who are not able to stay in their homes which are at risk of flood water and those who have the skills and knowledge to be of assistance to others.
To everyone else, I hope you have the common sense to stay home and not put yourself in a position that a rescuer has to help you, because of your stupidity, when they really could have been helping someone in actual danger.
Let’s hope this does not become a day to remember.