Cyclones and Coasters

In the past 2 weeks we’ve driven down from Cairns along the coastline through every single town that’s now swimming in floods. Luckily we made it down to the gold coast just in time to spend a few days at the theme parks before they were closed. Of course it wasn’t the best weather for rollercoasters but it didn’t stop us. It was however the PERFECT weather for water slides so the wet n wild water park was totally awesome.

Some of the shows at sea world were cancelled due to the weather but we did get to see this awesome fella having his lunch.

As you’ve probably seen Queensland is now virtually part of the ocean…phenomenal rain fall reaching numbers of 1 meter in 24 hours in some parts of the state. We were in Rockhampton a week ago, that’s now been evacuated. We watched the turtles in Bundaberg 4 days ago where three tornados have now ripped the city apart, deaths have been confirmed and they are now preparing for their highest floods in history.

 

Last night the storm picked up here big time here in surfers paradise, and whilst flooding is not expected to be a concern here given its proximity to the sea, the winds are topping 140 kmph, tearing trees and building apart all around us. Waves offshore are reaching a massive 12 meters according to new reports.

We decided it would be a wise move to ditch the tent and move into a hotel for a few days while it passes. We wont be heading down to Byron bay and we’re hoping that conditions will ease enough for us to be able to make it back up to Brisbane tomorrow.

We had booked 3 nights camping at Ipswich just outside of Brisbane, but at the moment Ipswich is all over the news with the Mayor pleading people to not go to the area and clog up the road networks for the emergency services. They have a dam up there which has burst and 2 other rivers which will rise to 15 meters forcing the evacuation of more than 400 homes. At the moment we’re looking for another hotel to go to in the center of Brisbane, but our main problem will be that Ipswich is located slightly inland of the coast and the flood waters are flowing into Brisbane towards the sea.

Its truly unbelievable. I don’t have any jokes for it because quite simply it isn’t funny. When you go out to the car you can feel that you are at real risk of being hit by debris or falling trees. Last night the walls of the motel were shaking, sirens were going off all night and you were just waiting for something to smash through the windows.

One thing that is very clear is that the ozzies are very well prepared for this. The emergency crews are everywhere and the coverage on the TV and radio is excellent. Without it there would undoubtedly be absolute chaos as in our situation we would have no idea what’s going on.

Its incredible to think that they already went through this in 2011 and its sad seeing people on the news saying that their businesses simply will not be ale to bounce back from this. A real sad image of a big house in Bundaberg half underwater with a “Sold” real estate sign outside. Sad if you’re the new owner…lucky if you just sold it I guess!