Scotguy Posted January 11, 2011 Report Share Posted January 11, 2011 Just seen the news and the shocking scenes form the floods in Queensland. They seem to be getting worse and more people are dying. My thoughts and best wishes are with the people over there, as I can imagine those of the Scottish nation are as well Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aronious Posted January 11, 2011 Report Share Posted January 11, 2011 The remarkable thing is that this has been going on for over a week and occurred in so many locations across the state. It is being reported today that Brisbane is now flooding and flooding in the CBD could be expected soon. Apparently the size of the flooded area (Local Governments flooded) totals an area the size of Germany and the UK combined! In downtown Brisbane In Toowoomba In Toowoomba Near Gympie Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sir Rols Posted January 11, 2011 Report Share Posted January 11, 2011 I must admit, last week when Rockhampton was copping it, I wasn't paying too much attention (CAF even asked me about them, and I, though I'm now embarrassed to say so, just replied along the likes of "whatever"). After all, it's the old Australian cycle, droughts followed by floods. The term "Floods of Biblical Proportions" was being bandied about, but I just put that down to media sensationalism. But today I've been transfixed with the incredible footage out of Toowoomba, and the scenes now coming from Brisbane. Biblical floods now seems an understatement. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aronious Posted January 11, 2011 Report Share Posted January 11, 2011 I must admit, last week when Rockhampton was copping it, I wasn't paying too much attention (CAF even asked me about them, and I, though I'm now embarrassed to say so, just replied along the likes of "whatever"). After all, it's the old Australian cycle, droughts followed by floods. The term "Floods of Biblical Proportions" was being bandied about, but I just put that down to media sensationalism. But today I've been transfixed with the incredible footage out of Toowoomba, and the scenes now coming from Brisbane. Biblical floods now seems an understatement. I felt the same. Flooding in Queensland (and most the eastern states) isn't uncommon. Similar to the Canarvon floods in WA at the same time. It's just something that happens every 5-10years. However, yesterdays pictures of Toowoomba and now Brisbane are insane. Apparently some parts have seen several meters of water rise in as little as an hour...it has been best described as an "inland tsunami". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sir Rols Posted January 11, 2011 Report Share Posted January 11, 2011 Yeah, Inland Tsunami seems to be the description now, and it seems to be apt - a wall of water that broke in Toowoomba and then just swept down the Lockyer Valley taking all in its path. And it was the suddenness of it all on Monday that seems to have accounted for the toll (depending where you look - and it's all very sketchy still, it's looking like 30 confirmed dead, but up to about 90 still missing, mostly from Grantham in the Lockyer Valley). I guess we're just braced now to see the grim toll rise today as the army and rescuers start being able to access some of the areas. The scary thing is now that Brisbane and Ipswich are in the path of the water, but it is literally unstoppable - the waters aren't expected to peak there now till Thursday (tomorrow). At least people there are prepared now - one would hope that further fatalities are going to be minimised now. I'm finding myself really affected by it all now. I may be a Sydneysider first and foremost, but I'm always aware that my families roots in Australia are as Queenslanders - I've always felt a soft spot and a bond with Qld. The fact that I know the affected areas pretty well bring it all so much closer to the bone. And while I've been on the fringes of bushfires and felt the 1989 Newcastle quake, floods are really the only natural disaster that I have had personal close experience with - as a youngster, when it seemed more exciting than scary, but it did submerge the family home. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
baron-pierreIV Posted January 11, 2011 Report Share Posted January 11, 2011 So sorry to hear of your inundation there in Qld, Ozzies. My thot & prayers are with you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sir Rols Posted January 12, 2011 Report Share Posted January 12, 2011 Ipswich Toowoomba Rockhampton Emerald Brisbane Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aronious Posted January 12, 2011 Report Share Posted January 12, 2011 The above pictures are made even more amazing when you consider the distances between places like Brisbane and Emerald and Rockhampton....and that basically everywhere between and around these cities is also flooded. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sir Rols Posted January 12, 2011 Report Share Posted January 12, 2011 Appropriate for a sports board: Suncorp Stadium, Brisbane: More water and a better lake than the Athens OC! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sir Rols Posted January 12, 2011 Report Share Posted January 12, 2011 The above pictures are made even more amazing when you consider the distances between places like Brisbane and Emerald and Rockhampton....and that basically everywhere between and around these cities is also flooded. Yeah, as the news is saying, the equivalent of France and Germany combined. But wait ... now it looks like Victoria is copping it. So we're starting to talk areas about the size of Europe, including Russia. Floods, rockfalls close Great Ocean Road A 40-kilometre section of the Great Ocean Road (in Victoria) has been closed due to rockfalls and floods caused by heavy rain in the area this morning. A VicRoads spokeswoman said the scenic highway was closed between Lorne and Skenes Creek, with motorists urged to delay any unnecessary travel to the area. Small rock falls were reported along the Great Ocean Road from 7am today, before the decision was made to close it about 10.30am. VicRoads crews are travelling to the site to assess the damage. It is not known for how long the road would be closed, the spokeswoman said. A number of traffic diversions are in place, with vehicles heading towards Apollo Bay being diverted to Deans Marsh-Lorne Road and Winchelsea-Deans Marsh Road. Traffic heading towards Lorne is being diverted along Skenes Creek and Forest-Apollo Bay roads. The Kennett River Caravan Park was evacuated this morning after floodwaters inundated 12 caravans. State Emergency Service spokeswoman Jilly Charlwood said the caravan park residents voluntarily evacuated the area. ‘‘The CFA [Country Fire Authority] are pumping the water out at the moment and our Lorne SES unit is also there,’’ she said. Police said the Cumberland River Holiday Park was also voluntarily evacuated this morning due to high volumes of water flooding campsites. About 40 campers are believed to have been affected at both camp grounds. This afternoon the Great Ocean Road continued to strain under the intense rain, with a another landslide occurring about one kilometre east of Wye River about 1pm. Police were considering sending up an air wing to assess the damage to the road from the air, however a Victoria Police spokeswoman said that plan was shelved this afternoon. Flash flood hits Melbourne In a day of wild weather across Victoria, people were pulled from trapped cars while residents fled their homes after deluges. Firefighters pulled people from three cars trapped under an inner Melbourne rail bridge after a pre-dawn deluge hit the city. Metropolitan Fire Brigade spokesman Trevor Woodward said the motorists were driving on Dudley Street, West Melbourne, near Wurrundjeri Way, when their vehicles were caught in the flash flood. He said the water was above window height with people in one of the cars unable to escape. Ambulance Victoria attended the scene but there were no reports of injuries. The incident followed a night of torrential rain across parts of Victoria. Homes evacuated, relief centre set up Up to 12 homes were evacuated in Natimuk, 300 kilometres north-west of Melbourne, following flash flooding in the area. An SES spokeswoman said the homes had been inundated with water and it was decided to evacuate them about 8am. A relief centre has been set up in the town. At the local post office, owner Steve Knoll was doing little business as he watched the floodwaters rising. ‘‘I haven’t been able to sell any papers as people just cannot get into my shop,’’ he said. ‘‘I’m high and dry at the moment, but the milkbar next door is already underwater, we’ve had to cancel the mail run.’’ He saw SES workers carry an elderly woman from her flooded home this morning and said emergency crews had been busy sandbagging. The SES has received 200 calls for help since 7pm last night, mostly for leaking roofs. The spokeswoman said local communities should stay alert and be prepared for flash flooding. The weather bureau has predicted heavy rain over the next few days. Victoria faces more wild weather Intense storms washed across the north and mid-western regions of Victoria overnight dumping massive amounts of rain, creating plenty of work for the SES. Western Victoria has been told to brace for flooding rain over the next two days as parts of the state continue a very wet start to 2011. The Bureau of Meteorology today issued another severe weather warning for the all of western Victoria, with town from Mildura in the state’s north west, to Horsham and Hamilton further south told to prepare for potential flash-flooding. Forecaster Chris Godfred said Melburnians also needed to prepare for torrential rain. Sydney Morning Herald Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alexjc Posted January 12, 2011 Report Share Posted January 12, 2011 New Zealand Prime Minister, John Key, has just got off the phone with Julia Gillard offering Any and all support that NZ can give. NZ ERU, NZCD, and The NZ Army have been put on standby for immediate deployment to Queensland. An RAAF C17 is being deployed to Auckland to pick up much need equipment. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Olympian2004 Posted January 12, 2011 Report Share Posted January 12, 2011 I must admit that I didn't follow the news from Australia closely enough since the flood started. But I just saw TV footage from Brisbane in the news on ZDF and was shocked about those cars literally washed away and piled up on another miles away. Or they showed a big party tent (they called it a "biergarten tent" on the ZDF news) being washed away and crushed beneath a bridge. What I don't understand: Why is the flood so severe? Didn't the flood start already before New Year's Eve? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sir Rols Posted January 12, 2011 Report Share Posted January 12, 2011 I must admit that I didn't follow the news from Australia closely enough since the flood started. But I just saw TV footage from Brisbane in the news on ZDF and was shocked about those cars literally washed away and piled up on another miles away. Or they showed a big party tent (they called it a "biergarten tent" on the ZDF news) being washed away and crushed beneath a bridge. What I don't understand: Why is the flood so severe? Didn't the flood start already before New Year's Eve? Well, that's the thing. Yes, the floods had been building for a while. Queensland's (well, much of Australia) just been continually soaked for the past month or more. So much so in SE Qld that the ground is just sodden and can't absorb any more. By the time a huge deluge hit over Toowoomba on Monday, there was nowhere else for the water to go but as a huge wave barelling down the ranges (Toowoomba's actually a city on the Great Dividing range) and into the river paths to the coast. Meanwhile, the dams around Brisbane (built, btw, after the cities last great floods in 1974 to prevent just such a repeat) had already got as full as they could get - indeed, they've had to release water to stop them overflowing - all of which has combined to feed the great floow heading down to Brisbane. The good news is, the floods haven't peaked as high as expected in Brisbane last night. But still much of the city is submerged. And it's unlikely to submerge before the weekend. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Citius Altius Fortius Posted January 12, 2011 Report Share Posted January 12, 2011 just got my donation receipt from the QLD government Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sir Rols Posted January 14, 2011 Report Share Posted January 14, 2011 Just today got in touch finally with a colleague in Brisbane I'm meant to be working with closely over the next month (and who I'd been trying to contact). Turns out her house was submerged totally with all her possesions lost. Was staying with friends. Even with all that to cope with, she was still anxious to be helping ME out with work despite me trying to persuade her to forget about work and concentrate on what's important. I can't believe her spirit. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
baron-pierreIV Posted January 14, 2011 Report Share Posted January 14, 2011 Did Venice start out like this? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mainad Posted January 14, 2011 Report Share Posted January 14, 2011 It just doesn't bear thinking about.First droughts,then floods on this scale.Does insurance cover the people who've lost their homes and,ifnot,what sort of aid can they expect? Just hope none of our Aussie posters have got caught up in any of this?? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sir Rols Posted January 14, 2011 Report Share Posted January 14, 2011 It just doesn't bear thinking about.First droughts,then floods on this scale.Does insurance cover the people who've lost their homes and,ifnot,what sort of aid can they expect? Just hope none of our Aussie posters have got caught up in any of this?? Ah, well, that's emerging as a contentious issue. It depends on what insurance agency they've been signed up with. Some, like Suncorp and RACQ, the biggest in Qld, are paying out on flood cover. But some - and it's Allianz, IAG and QBE that are being fingered - say their policies don't cover for flood and they won't pay out. The government is trying to heavy them to make some payments. After the Victorian bushfires, many of the insurers payed out ex gratia, even when they weren't liable to, for goodwill. But the scale here this time is so much vaster - this time it's hundreds of thousands of homes and businesses - whole towns and suburbs submerged in filthy mud. In terms of immediate assistance from Govt, well, there's various rafts of measures - starting from immediate hardship grants to tax relief, various exemptions from lot of fees and charges etc. A friend of mine who works for Centrelink, our Federal welfare agency, is on the volunteer list to head up to Queensland to speed and process claims (she did the same for the Vic bushfires). And the relief agencies and charities have been doing a great job with evacuation and refugee centres. So far, the recovery effort's been getting a lot of good approval and compliments. Ironically, it's Queensland Premier Anna Bligh who's emerging from the disaster with her reputation soaring. A few months ago, she was an unpopular Premier facing almost certain and crushing defeat at the next State election, and her Labor Government's unpopularity in Qld was being blamed a lot for the backlash that saw the Federal Election become deadlocked and Labor only able to hang on by the skin of their fingers and a bit of dumb luck. But in the past week she's done a Guiliani - she's been remarkable, tireless and compassionate throughout the disaster and her popularity is soaring. So much so, a lot of commentators are starting to tout her as PM material (and Gillard's performance during the floods by contrast is getting very savagely criticised to Bligh's steadfastness). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aronious Posted January 16, 2011 Report Share Posted January 16, 2011 Ironically, it's Queensland Premier Anna Bligh who's emerging from the disaster with her reputation soaring. A few months ago, she was an unpopular Premier facing almost certain and crushing defeat at the next State election, and her Labor Government's unpopularity in Qld was being blamed a lot for the backlash that saw the Federal Election become deadlocked and Labor only able to hang on by the skin of their fingers and a bit of dumb luck. But in the past week she's done a Guiliani - she's been remarkable, tireless and compassionate throughout the disaster and her popularity is soaring. So much so, a lot of commentators are starting to tout her as PM material (and Gillard's performance during the floods by contrast is getting very savagely criticised to Bligh's steadfastness). I wouldn't go as far as to name her as a potential Prime Minister (though her position as the President of the Australian Labor Party surely would help), though Gillard during these floods has been a complete flop. Someone needs to tell her to stop holding such robotic press conferences. Although she is almost never scripted, she sounds like she's constantly reading off a tele-prompter..and in mono-tone. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Citius Altius Fortius Posted January 16, 2011 Report Share Posted January 16, 2011 I just heard on the German News that there are floodings in Victoria, too now... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mainad Posted January 17, 2011 Report Share Posted January 17, 2011 Ah, well, that's emerging as a contentious issue. It depends on what insurance agency they've been signed up with. Some, like Suncorp and RACQ, the biggest in Qld, are paying out on flood cover. But some - and it's Allianz, IAG and QBE that are being fingered - say their policies don't cover for flood and they won't pay out. The government is trying to heavy them to make some payments. After the Victorian bushfires, many of the insurers payed out ex gratia, even when they weren't liable to, for goodwill. But the scale here this time is so much vaster - this time it's hundreds of thousands of homes and businesses - whole towns and suburbs submerged in filthy mud. You would think that people living in these areas would make sure that they insured with someone who covered for floods and other natural disasters.What measures do you think the government can use to force the recalcitrant companies to make some restitution to their clients? In terms of immediate assistance from Govt, well, there's various rafts of measures - starting from immediate hardship grants to tax relief, various exemptions from lot of fees and charges etc. A friend of mine who works for Centrelink, our Federal welfare agency, is on the volunteer list to head up to Queensland to speed and process claims (she did the same for the Vic bushfires). And the relief agencies and charities have been doing a great job with evacuation and refugee centres. So far, the recovery effort's been getting a lot of good approval and compliments. It sounds as if Australia is getting kind of used to dealing with these kind of emergencies.Maybe experience with the recent bushfires has paid off in knowing what needs to be done to help the victims even though the nature of the disasters is quite different? Ironically, it's Queensland Premier Anna Bligh who's emerging from the disaster with her reputation soaring. A few months ago, she was an unpopular Premier facing almost certain and crushing defeat at the next State election, and her Labor Government's unpopularity in Qld was being blamed a lot for the backlash that saw the Federal Election become deadlocked and Labor only able to hang on by the skin of their fingers and a bit of dumb luck. But in the past week she's done a Guiliani - she's been remarkable, tireless and compassionate throughout the disaster and her popularity is soaring. So much so, a lot of commentators are starting to tout her as PM material (and Gillard's performance during the floods by contrast is getting very savagely criticised to Bligh's steadfastness). To sound a note of caution however,Giuliani's popularity did not last long once memories of his role in 9/11 began to fade.He failed to secure the Republican Party's nomination in 2008 for instance.Maybe Bligh will be luckier,who knows? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mainad Posted January 17, 2011 Report Share Posted January 17, 2011 Thought our Aussie posters might like to see this article I read in Friday's Independent: Terence Blacker: Australia is still the lucky country Friday, 14 January 2011 Neighbours have helped each other out. Those interviewed were stoical, even viewing the wreckage of their homes. Interviewed on the radio as the waters of the Fitzroy River rose to threaten thousands of homes in the Queensland town of Rockhampton, the mayor, Brad Carter, was matter-of-fact. Plans for evacuating residents were being put into action and residents were warned that, as the river approached a level of 9.5m, the effect was likely to cause more damage than the floods of 1974, which were said at the time to be a once-in-a-century event. The soundbite of the moment was that the floods were "of biblical proportions" but last week, to a visiting Englishman at least, there seemed few signs of biblical wailing or gnashing of teeth. The weather forecast for Rockhampton predicted occasional thunder showers. A couple, stranded in their house and interviewed by a journalist in a passing boat, told him they were high enough to be safe. "We've never had dinner or breakfast over the water before, so we're having it now," said the husband. So much for the lucky country. If the floods have an Old Testament feel to them, then so does the plague of deadly brown snakes it has brought with it. So does the withering 10-year drought, "the Big Dry", of the past decade. So did terrible bush fires in Victoria almost two years ago which claimed 173 lives in one night, known later as Black Saturday. Then there are cyclones, tornadoes, an impressive array of deadly animals. Plagues of locusts have been something of a problem this year, too. If the character of a nation reveals itself most clearly in the uncontrollable drama of natural catastrophes, then over the past few days Australia has, not for the first time, shown that it has much to teach the world. As after Black Saturday, the current crisis has pointed up the quiet, unshowy, good-humoured resilience of Australians – "the true Aussie spirit", as Mayor Carter described it. It is tempting to believe that, in the face of disaster, courage and character have little to do with nationality, but can we really believe that? When Britain is affected by floods – a puddle in comparison to what is happening in Queensland – the air is soon thick with recrimination. Local government blames central government; voters blame them both. When the Katrina disaster broke in New Orleans, neither those on the ground nor in government acquitted themselves well. The Queensland floods, sweeping down river beds which have been dry for years, have not only claimed lives and made 200,000 homeless; it has also been a devastating economic blow, wiping out crops in the south of the state, one of the food bowls of Australia, and flooding open-cast mining. The task of cleaning up Brisbane and other towns will be slow and expensive. The Aussie spirit reflects above all a natural, unquestioned optimism and faith in who they are.The "lucky country" tag is no joke; Australians, perhaps because the nation was born in misery and hardship, are acutely aware of their own good fortune, living in a country which has space, sun, beauty and wealth. Indeed, the wild, untamed nature of the place and its weather is an important part of its appeal. "I love a surnburnt country," goes a famous poem by Dorothea Mackellar, "A land of sweeping plains/Of ragged mountain ranges/Of droughts and flooding rains./I love her far horizons,/I love her jewel sea,/ Her beauty and her terror – /The wide brown land for me!" National pride is seen at its worst during debates on immigration, but at its best at times like these. When nature turns nasty, Australians react instinctively like a people used to rebuilding. For them there is always the future. News reports reflect this sense of community. Neighbours have helped each other out. A radio call for residents to help protect a village with sandbags gets an immediate response. The owner of a fruit shop near the floods sets up a free barbecue and gives away his produce to those who need it. There are one or two reports of looting in Brisbane but, given the opportunities available, there seems to be remarkably little crime. Those interviewed on the news are stoical, even as they view the wreckage of their homes. "At least it keeps the rabbits down," one farmer told a reporter. Some of this hardiness reflects the frontier spirit of a people whose ancestors had to be tough to survive, but not all. It is easy to fall for the Crocodile Dundee myth, and exaggerate the ruggedness of Australians. Most of them, in fact, are town-dwellers, wary of – and well-protected from – the bush. Far from being renegade in spirit, they are instinctively community-minded and law-abiding, sometimes to an excessive degree. They are, in other words, the very opposite of their international caricature. Whereas in Britain, laws, guidelines and public service announcements advising citizens how to behave tend to be regarded as the unacceptable face of nannyism, the same things in Australia are part of daily life. A sense of society, of doing the right thing, is thought to be not such a terrible thing. It is even boldly accepted that politicians do not necessarily belong to an alien race whose only goal is to advance their own careers. Behind even the fiercest public rows, it is accepted on the left and the right that civic responsibility is important. To those of us in a country where cynicism is bred in the bone, where dissatisfaction and a tendency to blame others are in the national bloodstream, this sense of common interest is enviable. It takes a natural disaster to show that feeling part of a community matters. It contributes to a general feeling that, when fate or the weather slap you down, then your first instinct is to start rebuilding. When others are in difficulty, you respond personally, rather than looking for a government agency to help – or to blame for not helping. When politicians take action, you accept that, for all their failings, they are more or less trying to move in the same direction as those who voted for them. Perhaps I have a rose-tinted view of Australian public life, but it has seemed to me that, in their public pronouncements about the floods, the country's national and local politicians – from Julia Gillard and Kevin Rudd to the Queensland premier, Anna Bligh, and town mayors like Brad Carter – have seemed rather more measured and convincing, more like real leaders, than we have become used to in these islands. Of course, there is division and ferocity in public life. As a nation, Australia leads the world in chippiness and bloody-mindedness. All the same, the no-nonsense courage of Australians, their willingness to help each other, and, above all, their sustaining optimism and faith in their own country is an example to older, bigger nations less battered by "droughts and flooding rains". In the personality of its people, Australia is also lucky. Link Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sir Rols Posted February 1, 2011 Report Share Posted February 1, 2011 Bloody hell. What's Queensland done to upset the weather Gods! North Queensland's braced for a category 5 cyclone to sweep through from Cairns to Townsville today. The prediction is this is going to be BIG. Cyclone Yasi to hit Cairns We're all going to be watching tensely as it develops over the day. Good Luck Queensland! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sir Rols Posted February 2, 2011 Report Share Posted February 2, 2011 Battening down the hatches: Australians flee, jam shelters ahead of "catastrophic" cyclone (Reuters) - Thousands of residents fled their homes and crammed into shelters in northeastern Australia as a cyclone described as the most powerful in the country's history and with a 650 km (400 mile) wide front barreled toward the coastline on Wednesday. "We are facing a storm of catastrophic proportions," Queensland state premier Anna Bligh said after Cyclone Yasi was upgraded to a maximum-strength category five storm. More than 400,000 people live in the cyclone's expected path, which includes the cities of Cairns, Townsville and Mackay. The entire stretch is popular with tourists and includes Australia's Great Barrier Reef. Satellite images showed Yasi as a massive storm system covering an area bigger than Italy or New Zealand, with the cyclone predicted to be the strongest ever to hit Australia. It is expected to hit the coast on Wednesday evening, packing winds of nearly 300 km (186 miles) per hour. "All aspects of this cyclone are going to be terrifying and potentially very very damaging," Bligh said, adding the greatest threat to life could come from surges of water of up to four meters above normal high tide levels along the coast. The storm is due to hit when the tide is high. Mines, rail lines and coal ports have all shut down, with officials warning the storm could drive inland for hundreds of kilometers, hitting rural and mining areas still struggling to recover after months of devastating floods. Outside a shuttered night market in the tourist city of Cairns, nervous backpackers tried to flag down cars and reach temporary evacuation centers at a nearby university. "We are terrified. We have had almost no information and have never seen storms like this," said Marlim Flagar, 20, from Sweden. Various buildings in Cairns, including schools and malls, have been designated as shelters for those fleeing the storm, with some fast filling up and several already full, according to messages sent on Twitter to local media. At a sprawling shopping center, hundreds of people streamed into a makeshift shelter carrying backpacks, blankets and food. "We've only got a loaf of bread and a few other things, so we hope it doesn't last too long or we'll run out," said local woman Kirsty Munro as she tried to gather her three children aged two, four and eight in the crush of people. Australia has strict building standards and Queensland suffers regular cyclones, but experts warned that many homes and buildings may not be able to withstand winds of this magnitude. "The building regulations make things a lot better off at lower wind speeds but once you get to extreme cases you are in uncharted ground," said Robert Leicester, a researcher at the Australian Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization, who has studied the impact of previous cyclones. ... Reuters Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Citius Altius Fortius Posted February 2, 2011 Report Share Posted February 2, 2011 North Queensland's braced for a category 5 cyclone to sweep through from Cairns to Townsville today. The prediction is this is going to be BIG. Good Luck Queensland! OHH - no, that is terrible - I cross my fingers... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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