The Flash Flood!

Toowoomba, in Southern Queensland, had a flash flood yesterday that killed eight people - the count so far - and has apparently has done billions of dollars worth of damage.



I have a couple of friends in Toowoomba who aren't answering e-mails, but I'm sure they're fine.  It's just "too Hong Kong" to immediately fear the worst, although I do fear the worst for the exquisite Japanese Garden that was a gift from Japan to Queensland and so beautiful.  It surely couldn't have survived and that's a total tragedy.

In the meantime, here's a link to what's happened if you too have friends in Toowoomba: HERE!

In the meantime, let me say I was once almost in a situation like this, although many many years ago and we were actually very very lucky, so I do kinda know what it's like!

What happened back then, in the mid 80s, was we were in Outback Australia, camping near Riversleigh, with our tent pitched in a dry river bed, when ...

... in the grim light of dawn, we're wakened by loud hideously ugly wail from the sky coming towards us.  We scrambled out of the tent to see a helicopter coming down the creek and it stops and hovers just above us and a policeman leans out with a fog horn and shouts "Jghasldruoqierhgkjhgiu gourepryqihi BRIDGE! Gthoduokgutit yuyfgoierieut BRIDGE!"

"What did he say?" asked Keith.

"Jghasldruoqierhgkjhgiu gourepryqihi BRIDGE! Gthoduokgutityuyfgoierieut BRIDGE!" the policeman repeated.

"I think we're being told to get out and get over the bridge."  I said but I was only guessing.

Nonetheless, the siren went off again as the helicopter took off down the bed of this non-existent river and that sound alone was so scary we decided we had to move PRONTO!

So we're scrambling around, adrenalin pumping, throwing tents and sleeping bags, dogs and camping stuff into the back of our Jackaroo ... all barefooted and still in our pjs ... when I notice I've got a funnel web spider on my foot with fangs raised.  I freeze just as time slowed and spread out in a way that normally only happens during car accidents. "Sod it!  I don't have time for this." I think and I kick it off my foot, and it's only much later, when the adrenalin's gone, I realise that normally I wouldn't have had the reflexes to kick off a spider the very nano-second before the fangs sink in and I'm so thrilled and excited about how very much cleverer than I am my body is!

So, wondering aloud if we're being very silly and over-reacting, we drive up the side of the embankment, ignore the regular bushtrack and power through the scrub and trees instead, reaching the bridge in less than a minute, drive over it without a single problem, get a bit up the hill on the other side and that's when we stopped and looked back ... and immediately wondered what the fuss had been about because everything was exactly the way it had been.

But then we saw it. The most frightening wall of water racing down the creek. We couldn't tell how much there was until it crashed over the bridge, and instantly it was underwater. Like eight feet under and all churning brown mud, exactly like in that youtube clip above.

And also exactly like in that clip, it was only minutes before the cars started arriving in numbers, ten in all, being pulled down the creek in these raging floodwaters, and all big solid heavy duty 4x drives that would have weighed a ton, that you would have sworn nothing on earth could shift.  Yet here they are, all getting stuck on the bridge with water cascading over the top, all very spectacular and scary.

It's about then that the locals start arriving, all in heavy-duty Outback 4x drives or tractors, and they park alongside us on the hill and it's all confusion and mayhem as we get down as close as possible to the water, trying to spot if there are any people in those vehicles, with everyone going "Oh my god, that's Dr X's car!" and "Isn't that Bill's new Range Rover?" but there doesn't seem to be people in them, and lord only knows what we would have done if there had been.

Oh, and Dr X's car, which was one of the biggest and heaviest, got swept over the bridge and was churned downstream and out of sight!

And it's about then when all the SES, police and helicopter action started, and it all got crazy confusing, and because none of us were wanted anymore, and seemed only in the way because everyone seemed to know what they were doing, we all retreated to the only sane place around, the local pub atop the hill, so that's where we went to wait until we were needed, and it turned out we were required, although mainly to hand beers to the people, mainly campers but including Dr X and Bill, rescued and dropped off into our care.

But I will tell you one thing about this!  It was a huge crisis but yet it was all so cheerful and good-natured with knee-jerk heroism and total and sensible courage on everyone's part that was very nice indeed.  "This is Australia!" I kept thinking!  "This is the very best of Australia!" And after the crisis was over - it took about four hours, with lots of police action and helicopter action - the rescue teams and everyone else finally retreated to the local pub and we had the most joyous, friendly and silly party that was enormous fun, even, since this was the mid 80s, when the rescue teams demanded all the women enter themselves into a wet T-shirt contest and instead of entering ourselves, we all entered our dogs, it was non-stop hilarious!

So this is indeed Australia! The very best of Australia! I think that's what is distinctive about folks from that nation! That, in a crisis, everyone seems to come into their own.

You know, just last week, on the HK news, there was a clip from Outback Queensland, in the town of St George, where all these Afghan refugees, former boat people, were screaming and wailing, demanding the Government immediately move them out so they could escape the expected flashflood,  and I couldn't help thinking "They really should stay put.  It's takes only a couple of these crises, with their subsequent well organised, good natured rescues, to turn anyone into a True Blue Aussie!" ...

... and that's indeed something Australians should be very, very proud of!