The CBD was evacuated and the city has pretty much been shut down.
Here are some images I snapped earlier in the week.
A view across the river from the Schonell Bridge. The trees in the middle-ground are the river bank, so you can see the river has well and truly burst its bank. This was a day and half before the flood peak.
St Lucia Campus turned into swampland.
Here is a flooded carpark. The water has swallowed the first level.
Here is Melbourne St at West End, now a very large creek.
A view of the Kangaroo Point picnic area from the cliffs above.
View across to the CBD from South Bank. You can see the black pontoon caught against the pilons of the pedestrian bridge (around the middle of the photo).
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11 comments:
Chris, those photos show just how terrible the flooding has been. So glad you guys are all right and prayers being said for those who lost so much.
Keep safe and dry out there Chris. Sorry to see such horrible flooding there.
Oh, man. That looks bad.
It's going to be a long haul cleaning up. I don't know how your insurance works, but here, ordinary house insurance doesn't include flood coverage. You have to buy a second policy to cover damage from rising water. I hope your insurance companies are more sensible.
Wow, here's hoping all turns out well for folks. I've been through hurricanes and earthquakes, but never a flood. I can't imagine the loss and pain-in-the-butt factor of having to rebuild and re-acquire. Goodluck to everyone there.
Linda
Hi, Amanda. The scale of the flooding is truly mind-boggling, with most of the state effected (and now other states as well).
It's amazing that so few people lost their lives & truly amazing to see the co-ordinated response from government to handle the crisis. Pretty heartbreaking for some.
Hi, Chris. Luckily we have been fine. The last major flood like this one was 1974, some 36 years ago. Both were supposed to be 1:100 year events. . .
Hi, Matapam. I think a lot of insurance does not include flood as standard. I actually don't have it, because we are quite high up.
If we flood where we are we will be sticking out a thumb for a ride on Noah's arc.
Hi, Linda. The river is very muddy. For the homes that went under the clean-up task is almost overwhelming. Mud gets through everything. The destructive force of the water was awesome at its peak - whole trees smashed through houses, boats, pontoons and ferrys swept downstream and into the bay. We were lucky we did not lose any bridges.
Quite a few of the barges and pontoons had to be sunk to prevent damage to structures in the river. They will need to be recovered now. It's like a minesweeping operation.
It would
Going through something like that certainly gives you a perspective on just how helpless we are in the face of nature in full destructive mode.
Keep notes - I guarantee it will creep into your writing somewhere: the eerieness of a normally hectic city holding its breath waiting for the storm, the horror, the way people around you responded to the assorted crises...
That, alas (or perhaps not so alas) is writer-brain. Everything gets stored away for use later.
I'm glad you and yours came through safely (so did my family, who live in the Ipswich area), and I hope that the cleanup and recovery goes as well as it can.
Hi, Kate. I guess it was the writer brain that impelled me to go and see this historic (but horrible) event first-hand. The goverment was urging people to stay home and not complicate the recovery and rescue efforts. I did not go into the really badly effected areas, although I would have liked to have seen that, just to absorb it.
I think you have a right to see events like that close up - especially as a writer.
Hmm. I think NOW is the time to remind you to post some of the books you borrowed back to me!
Glad you are OK!
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