An Ant's Perspective: 2011

Hi I'm Ant.I recently suffered an injury at work and found myself stuck at home.At first I thought I'd return to work within days(a quick recovery and off I go)but that was not to happen.Naturally being an active person,this was a setback I was not prepared for.My point of contact for my injury management joked that I could catch up on the day time soapies,but instead I thought I'd try my hand at blogging.
No-one could forecast what this year was going to bring.Heck,my forecasting skills let me down,as I had been recently began a fitness and weight gain program and I felt this was going to be a promising year....

The scale of the destruction which would beset our region over the coming days was incomprehensible to the average suburbanite,so I began to photograph what I could to keep a record so we don't forget how quickly it can be all taken away from us.Many of these images are taken with my Nokia phone off news reports,obtaining images otherwise unable to take myself.I would like to acknowledge the Seven network,Channel Ten,Channel Nine and the ABC for for their coverage.

Toowoomba suffers an inland tsunami.
courtesy 7 network

Toowoomba street rescues everywhere.
courtesy 7 network

At the outset of my injury,unbeknownst to me,an event of catastrophic proportions in our region was beginning to unfold.One hundred kilometres inland of us,after weeks of rain in the table lands,the Rural city of Toowoomba was inundated with flash flooding,receding down the ranges from the already flooded town of Dalby.
The flash flooding raged down through the main street of Toowoomba sweeping away pedestrians,cars and filling open businesses with water while patrons scrambled onto counter tops and shelving to try to save themselves.

James street-Toowoomba
courtesy 7 network

Emergency Services helicopter saves 28 people stranded at Grantham
images courtesy 7 network

The water left Toowoomba as quickly as it arrived,continuing on it's turbulent journey,it tore through Murphy's creek,uprooting entire homes and casting them down the mountainside without warning.Many of these homes were destroyed,some carried their occupants on their rooves downstream to Grantham.It was here an entire community was wiped out and if wasn't for the immediate response and the heroic actions of the Queensland government's emergency rescue crew,many more lives would have been lost.

This once rural community is now a sea of devastation
courtesy of 7 network

The conditions were extreme but these rescuers were determined to save who they could.

In Grantham homes were washed away by the shear force of the water and people were forced to climb onto rooftops to safety.
courtesy 7 network

In Ipswich we were warned of water coming,but in reality people just weren't expecting what was to come,and many had to have last minute evacuations.

The water rose very quickly and in just a few short hours much of The Lockyer Valley,Ipswich and then Brisbane went under water.

The power of the released water left this once beautiful land desolate and devoid of life.

The region that had known drought for the last few years,now had to had reached critical levels in recent times so when the rain filled the dam to 100%,the decision was made not to release any excess water from the dam.This was a two-fold decision,as to release water could not only add to the flooding,keeping a full dam may attempt to long term drought proof the region.But the rain didn't abate.

Twenty four hours after Toowoomba flooded,the Wivenhoe Dam was at near 200%.Now as ridiculous as it sounds,the Wivenhoe dam had a second section built atop the original dam after the 1974 floods to flood proof Brisbane.Senior hydrologists decided water had to be released from the dam as levels were reaching dangerous levels(200% !).Safety plugs were built into the dam and designed to burst sections of the dam walls automatically at maximum capacity to limit a full dam wall break before it happened.The hydrologists acted and released water at the rate of 30 thousand million litres per day until the dam levels dropped back to 100%.

The Ipswich Pound didn't make it,but all the animals did.

It was the combination of the intense rainfall,the flash flooding coursing across the valley and the excess water released from the dam which contributed to water levels reaching 19 metres high in Ipswich and 3 to 4 metres in Brisbane.Later there would be much debate as to how much of an influence the dam release contributed to the direct flooding as insurance companies refuse to honour contracts due to technical wording related to flooding.

Ipswich central under water

The Ulster Tavern.

Once the rain stopped the amount of water that had entered the general community was mind boggling. Whole suburbs went under water.Ipswich central business district showed only rooftops above the water line and many residents throughout the entire region were cut off from civilization all together,stranded to fend for themselves until help arrived.We were lucky and were not in the immediate path of the surging water,however at the height of the flood,the creeks surrounding our home filled and backed up the streets around us,sectioning off areas we could travel to.As local infrastructure was affected,services were cut and we suffered loss of power for 3 days.Compared to many we were merely inconvenienced for a time.

So many families lives destroyed and still so much to do

For the residents living within the lowest lying areas,all was lost.Where once homes stood,now dark,putrid dwellings were left.The smell which emanated from those suburbs affected would not be forgotten quickly and the rubbish which once were treasured possessions,furniture and appliances would now have to be gathered up and dumped,quickly.

The water was swirling at near 30 knots inside peoples homes,turning lives upside down

When the water finally receded enough for people to return to their homes(many had taken refuge at shelters,while others at friends or relatives on higher ground and even some taken in by strangers)people came from everywhere to help.Tradesman,emergency service personnel,rural fire teams and ordinary people who just wanted to help people in need came from all over the country.I spoke to a Kiwi fellow who actually lived in Darwin and as he was stranded in Ipswich,made his way to the worst hit area to help where he could.At another house ,a volunteer group of elderly women shovelled the sloppy remains of the roof of the floor into wheel barrows to be carted away.At a normally quiet backstreet intersection,a teenage girl directed traffic(remarkably well)as the streets filled with Police cars,fire trucks and dump trucks along with the traffic of residents and would be helpers.

A teenage girl takes control of a chaotic intersection

Those that could help did what they could and I will never get the image of a one armed man strapped to a wheel barrow via a leather belt slung over what upper arm he had and work like a warrior in a complete strangers home.When exhaustion and hunger began to set in,volunteers cooked barbques under homes without power and distributed it to the "Mud Army"as they would later be coined.

It was easily the biggest natural disaster to have ever touched my life and at one stage I stood in a street and the enormity of it overwhelmed me.I kept my emotions in check,but later on they washed over me and I felt a combination of sorrow for those who had lost so much and pride for those who selflessly helped others even when many of those helpers had also suffered losses of their own.

Where to begin

The One Mile bridge is 3 metres down

The One Mile bridge after the water receded

Within a couple of weeks the streets were emptied of the decaying rubble that once were peoples lives,and those that could returned to rebuild.Many couldn't and many just wouldn't,but none would forget any time soon and changes to planning and infrastructure would now have to come.