The Great Brisbane Flood

 

The Great Flood

This is my second 100-year flood (Mike’s 4^th – so we secretly blame him for bringing it with him during his visit). However, I have to say this one was handled very differently than the last. I am more impressed by the Australian culture and true sense of community than ever. I will walk you through our experience as it unfolded.

Tuesday

It had been raining for about 3 weeks straight at this point (on a side note – Mike got here on Christmas day and every day that we spent in Brisbane consisted of torrential downpour and grey skies. He is convinced that I moved to a worse version of Seattle. Not the best motivation to get him to move here). All day at work people were talking about the road conditions and the potential for flooding and around midday both my client and my company sent emails directing us to all go home before it got worse. We stalked up at the grocery store and prepared for a few rainy days at home. They were predicting a return to the office by Thursday morning.

Tuesday night our apartment building had a precautionary meeting. They told us about all the planning they had done (sand bags, blocking vents, and more) that they had done to prepare for the worst. They advised us that if the water got high enough to knock the power out we would have to evacuate. They tested the backup generators and ordered extra back up pumps and braced themselves for minor floods.

They also had us meet all the neighbours on our floor so that we knew who was there, who had left, and what everyone’s contingency plan was. We all had to post our status on our doors. Volunteers went around to all of the elderly tenants to help them pack and prepare in advance.

Wednesday

We were woken up at about 8:45 to the PA system in our building announcing that we all had to evacuate by 10 am because the power was being primitively shut off. We had about an hour to pack a bag and get out before the elevators and power went out. The building did rounds to ensure everyone was out and kept a list of where everyone was going.

Each partner from the office called to find out where and how everyone was by 9 am and sent a spread sheet to the team letting us know what everyone’s status was. We were some of the only people evacuated by that time and by the end of the day we had about 8 different people from all levels at the firm call and offer their homes and spare bedrooms to us.

We hopped in a cab and headed to a hotel on the north side of the city on the top of a very high hill where the power was unaffected and was projected to be safe.

Thursday

Thursday was the projected to be the peak of the floods as it was still raining in the north and the dams were going to be released again because they had reached 170% capacity. Most of the city had been evacuated and there was almost no power downtown. We walked down to check out the flood levels before we were pushed back because high tide was coming in and levels were expected to rise.

The partners at the firm continued to check in multiple times a day to make sure we were ok and provide updates on everyone else. They sent a paid leave charge number and told everyone across the Brisbane firm to focus on safety, family, and community and not worry about work. The lost time was going to become additional paid leave non of which we would be expected to make up (very different from weather related shut downs in the states!).

On the news, reporters interview restaurant and home owners who lost everything. Impressively, for the most part they all were shockingly positive – talking about moving forward, rebuilding, and making Brisbane better in the future. Unlike Katrina and other disasters in the States and elsewhere, you heard no one demanding help, handouts, or government intervention. This may largely have been because all of Australia and NZ had already mobilized and clothes, food, and volunteers were pouring into the city before any requests went out. Evacuation centres had more food, clothes, and children’s toys flowing in than they could distribute. Little children were showing up to give away their prized toys to the kids who now had nothing.  It was touching. 

Business, who had been damaged by the floods and were losing tons of money by the hour were not only taking care of their people but also donating thousands of dollars and more in resources to help. Oil, gas, and mining companies stopped drilling and mining and sent their personnel to help with search, rescue, and relief. Companies like Deloitte who dismissed their employees from work for a week also set up a campaign to double  employee donations- so far employees have donated $60K and Deloitte has contributed $120K.

Meanwhile, at the hotel, Mike and I discovered a colony of kitties in the alley behind the hotel which we watched from our balcony. They have now been counted, named, and a clear hierarchy has been identified. Its a cat soap opera back there.

We also discovered Roma Street Park which is a beautiful huge tropical park filled with lizards, lorikeets, fox bats, streams, waterfalls, and beautiful plants. Its a peaceful refuge amongst the chaos.

River height: 4.46 meter

Returning Home

After switching hotels (because ours had been rented fully to imported police offers brought in to provide aid), a tearful goodbye to Mike, returning to work because my client office was unaffected, and living in a hotel for a week and a half, we were permitted to return home. Most things were up and running with the exception of the fire alarms and sprinklers. As a result we all had to attend a fire safety training, were provided extra extinguishers and alert horns, and had to sign in and out of the building every time we came or went. All in all, not too bad. We are just glad to finally be home and be able to settle back in.

They say the total city damage will be in excess of $5 billion and the city cat system may take 18 months or more to rebuild and relaunch. The people of the city are still organising clean up initiatives and helping one another to recover. Overall, its been a very inspiring experience.

We took lots of pictures – they are posted here:http://www.flickr.com/photos/54442958@N05/sets/72157625781656543/