Queensland/Brisbane Flood Crisis - Day 1, 11 Jan 2011

We live on the riverfront in the suburb of New Farm. A new and modern development with a sculpture at the end of our street marking the level of the water of the historic floods of 1974. The kids climb up and slide down the sculpture every time we pass it not knowing or understanding its significance. Honestly, even I never gave it a second thought. Twas just a piece of "interesting" history.



7.30am On Tuesday morning we woke up to a dark and stormy day. Switching on the news, we were told to prepare for some flooding but that was nothing unusual; we DO live on the riverfront. The husband went off to work taking the bus and I started getting the toddler ready for daycare, planning to stock up on supplies after, just in case. Supplies of what, I had no idea. Born and bred in Kuala Lumpur, I had never experienced more than the usual flooding of the Federal Highway during heavy downpour. As we came down to the basement car park, we saw our neighbours clearing out their basement storage areas. 

9.30am A quick chat with the director of the daycare and she seemed in good spirits, joking about how I should stay home because it was supposed to "flood" in New Farm in an hour (it never does). I proceeded to head down to Coles, the neighbourhood supermarket. It was a little shocking to see people grabbing bottled water by the cartons, bread by loaves and loaves, even meat had to be restocked by the supermarket packers. They were flying off the shelves as fast as they were being stocked. It wasn't the kind of panic you see in disaster movies, instead people were calm, almost eerily calm. Determined not to panic, I headed to the gym for a quick workout, only because I could keep an eye on the river from on the treadmill. The water was higher than I've ever seen before and people were coming out to the boardwalk alongside the river to watch unbelievable debris floating downstream. Huge pieces of wood, pontoons, jet skis and small boats still attached to them, uprooted trees, even a mattress. People were quiet, soberly watching and wondering what the day would bring.

On a good day, you can't even see the river from this vantage point, but it's risen high enough to be seen from here.  You can see it behind the tree on the top right corner.

11.00am I received a text message from my husband in the Brisbane CBD informing me that the Brisbane River had broken its banks and started flooding the walkways of the opposite bank where the Brisbane Cultural Centre was housed. I immediately decided to pick up the 2 year old from daycare and keep him home with me because we had been advised to park the car uphill and not keep it in the basement car park, again, just in case.

11.45am As I reached the school (in Fortitude Valley) cars were lined outside. Walking through the doors, daycare director, Andrea, and a few other teachers were on the phone, calling parents to come fetch their children, as they have been told to evacuate. That really put things in perspective. Not to sound dramatic, but I had to swallow a wave of panic which evidently flashed across my face. Packed the kid in the car, and headed off to find a spot on a hill to park the car. It wasn't as easy as I thought it would be because everyone else had scrambled for an empty spot on the hill. Finally I found one, bundled the toddler in gumboots and a raincoat and headed home in the rain.

12.00pm The reports coming in on the news was frightening. Toowoomba which is about 700m above sea level had been hit by an "inland tsunami" (those are the pictures you keep seeing on CNN). I started following #qldfloods on twitter. The live pictures coming in were awful and scary. Especially pictures of the rapidly rising Brisbane River which had broken its banks in the heart of the city at Eagle St. Pier and began flooding the inner city suburb of Southbank and West End (where many of our friends stay). I was glued to the local news reporting on rising river levels, but even more heartbreakingly so, missing persons reports and deaths. Every 15 minutes found me out on the balcony checking to see if the river level in front of our house had risen to engulf the bike path and boardwalk.

Our neighbours frantically sandbagging their garage door.

2.00pm Husband came home. People were filing out of the city once the Eagle St. Pier became inundated with water and the offices on Eagle Street were being evacuated. Citycat (ferry) services that took people from the suburbs to the city and back had been suspended due to exceptionally strong current and fast rising river waters. Rumours started to fly around that the public transport services were going to be suspended too. For the rest of the evening we were glued to the news and flood reports on the telly, tweets by people directly affected by the floods and websites that were live streaming videos and regularly updating us on the situation. Exhausted, we fell asleep. The only reason we could fall asleep was because we were housed on the fourth floor of our apartment building. At least we wont be swept away by the river in the night.