My best Wishes and Prayers to our Friends in OZ
 

Hopefully everyone is healthy and safe during the flooding.

I for sure hope this isn't happening to anyone:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...-affected.html

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE6BU09620110101

http://www.breitbart.com/article.php...show_article=1

My prayers our there for any and all affected.

Wow... my prayers for them too.

Oh man, that sucks. Nothing worse than watching flood water slowly rise and you can't do anything about it except watch; it's a slow torture. And to make matters worse, Aus has to deal with potential crocs and snakes in their homes? Yikes! Hope everyone comes out ok...

La Nina is well & truly under way!

Australia is a country of extremes. We've suffered through a decade of drought (El Nino) & now the opposite. Interestingly the floods are all part of an approximate 20yr cycle that happens...all the flood water from what is essentially two back to back floods will travel S/W all the way to Lake Eyre in South Australia. This process is all part of the greater ecosystem

That doesn't make living through the floods or the losses that the affected residents will suffer any easier but it is all relatively normal...the upside for all the wet weather is no immediate threat of bushfires - another fundamental element of the Australian ecosystem

Not too many crocs that far South though & the ones you need to worry about (saltwater crocs) hate freshwater anyway

http://www.rc-monster.com/forum/pict...&pictureid=779

Quick the waters rising!

http://www.rc-monster.com/forum/pict...&pictureid=778

LOL. It's starting to sound more and more like an understatement every year. Years of droughts and water rationing and then the poor fellas up north of me cop that. Feel for them. Us here in the south have bush fires to contend with. We had a relatively wet winter and a lot of green has grown all of which will soon be very dry and extremely flammable once the temps get up there.
Two years ago we had one day with 117.86F (Black Saturday) and the very next day we couldn't get over 66F. Just to give you an idea of how extreme things can get. Still though, it's not all bad. It is a beautiful country with lot to see and enjoy and I think some of our beaches are second to none. Don't want anyone thinking Australia is a deathtrap. LOL.

While I am currently safe and dry down in the south I think that our friends up north would be very touched by your thoughts, prayers and well wishes.

Kinda reminds one of TS Allison back in '01 doesn't it TexasSP? That's why I feel for those folks. Man, floods are tough to deal with...

Yup, that was pretty rough. The site of the water just rising and not stopping is hard to forget. Luckily I faired okay, but family and friends were not so lucky. At least croc's weren't getting into my house.

Water coming towards your house is pretty bad but try this on for size. Imagine seeing this view from your back door.
http://i52.tinypic.com/30cqcyf.jpg

More rain is forecast for Queensland

http://www.smh.com.au/environment/we...104-19e55.html

You'll notice most older homes are built on stilts. This method/style is known as Queenslander...for obvious reasons

http://images.smh.com.au/2011/01/04/...74-600x400.jpg

As the floods continue, Toowoomba, QLD was absolutely smashed last night...

http://www.smh.com.au/environment/we...110-19l7n.html

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AOWbl_mjgr0

http://www.bom.gov.au/products/IDR663.loop.shtml#skip

We are waiting & hoping for news that many of the missing survived

Man it is just getting worse and worse with no end in sight. Just saw a footage from a news helicopter of a car with a family in it stuck in high water. By the time news chopper went away and come back with a Emergency Rescue the car was nowhere to be found. Hart breaking to think that I just got to see a families last moments alive on TV. Horrible.

I really hope they miraculously survived, hard to imagine Brisbane CBD being evacuated

Flash floods for VIC also BIG-block!! who invited la nina to this party

Ten years of drought and then ten years worth of rain in a couple of months. I have no idea what the hell is going on. It is bucketing down here in Victoria and it is so humid too. This is nothing like the weather we normally get down here. When it rains it is usually cold. Sucks. The dog is just looking at me with a sad face. Haven't taken him for a walk in a few days now. The rain wont let up. I guess our problems are not as bad as the poor Queenslanders.

My parents are OK as they are up nice and high but the swimming pool at the back of their property is under water. Dad says that they are safe and water has to get much higher before they have anything to worry about but how can one not worry? With so much rain on the way it's got me stressing a fair bit.

Man, it is bad down there! I saw some videos/news reports and it was horrible. It's just not letting up - no rest period to catch a breath. My wife and I were thinking of moving there in several years, now she's not sure.

It's may be due to more media coverage these days but it sure seems like weather around the world has been more extreme the last few years.

Hopefully some relief will happen soon, will keep it in my prayers.

Brian, move to Sydney. Here a 'guide'...

It's never cold
The temperature may be 8 degrees and the calendar might be nudging July but this city, we tell ourselves, is never cold. Cold is snow and frozen lakes, the weather plane-loads of tourists from chillier climes flee to visit us. Cold is Melbourne.
This is the sunny city, the beach city. The worst it ever gets here, we say while blowing warm air on to numb fingers, is chilly.
This is why most Sydneysiders spend winter shivering around dust-covered heaters dragged from hall cupboards and garages. No central heating for us. We sit in houses with wooden floorboards and large windows and wonder why the nights are freezing. We sweat under thick doonas and turn our skin red in too-hot morning showers while shuddering at the thought of obscuring bright morning light with anything such as heavy curtains.
We will never admit that Sydney gets cold. It does, though, almost every year in winter. Teeth chatter in bus queues and only the brave sit outside on ferries at night.
When the temperature drops, we grumble about it as if living in Sydney gives us the right to year-round warmth.
We describe mornings where we can see our breath as freak weather, an aberration blowing in from the Snowy Mountains or New Zealand.
Dress to defy
As if to prove that the freezing climes are just a blip, Sydneysiders will not wear cold-weather clothing until it is absolutely necessary. Men will put on a warmer top in single-digit temperatures but persist in wearing thongs and shorts. Women, dressed for a night out, will resist a bulky coat so they can show off the remnants of their Sydney tans. Howling bitter winds may be blasting the streets but our only concession is to pull on a scarf and give the weather the (unprotected) cold shoulder.
Hot enough for you?
The heat is bliss; we're even proud of the humidity. Nothing beats the hot fug of moist air, scented with wattle and frangipani, that hits you walking outside Sydney Airport after a long stuffy flight.
It looks like a bustling city out there but there are lizards darting across the car park's hot bitumen and sulphur-crested cockatoos squawking in the nearby trees.
Only true residents accept that summer in Sydney means sweat dribbling inside business suits and seared legs from blistering car seats parked in the sun.
Driving speed
There are rules for driving in Sydney. Rule one: drive at the speed limit. Don't drive above it, that's wrong of course, but don't drive below it, either. In this city, travelling at even one or two kilometres slower than is allowed is negligent. If the traffic is flowing freely, Sydneysiders have an unceasing need to match their speedometer with the speed-limit signs exactly.
Tailgating
Rule two: tailgating is a legitimate means of communication.
If you're not driving bang on the speed limit, other drivers will rev up to the rear of your car and stay there, bonnet to the bumper. A rear-view mirror filled with the whites of another driver's eyes means you're probably driving at 109km/h on a freeway or 39km/h in a school zone.
Merging
The next driving rule is an explanation of why it's often difficult to get out of the way of a tailgater. Sydneysiders are rarely keen to let other cars into their lane.
Be fair. They've battled to reach the position they're in. They're not going to lose it to some interloper who's driving 1km/h too slowly.
If they do let you into their lane, the opportunity will be so brief you'll need to harness formula one-style driving skills to take advantage of it. Watch for a slight pause in acceleration, turn on the indicator and move into the metre of space before them. Miss this moment and you won't get the chance again.
If you've managed to change lanes, all future relations on that stretch of road rest on a wave of acknowledgment afterwards. Wave thanks or face glaring eyes from your fellow driver for the rest of the journey.
Baffling tourists is an art
Mystify international visitors with warnings about the Backpacker's Express - not a bus service but the dangerous rip at the southern end of Bondi Beach. Frighten them further with news the southerly buster will arrive soon to cool things off.
While they're looking worriedly for a Wollongong boxer, you're enjoying the afternoon sea breeze. Check they know that meeting at the Toaster isn't interpreted as congregating in the kitchen while reminiscing about the old days of catching a red rattler into town to see the Coat Hanger.
House prices
We think it makes sense that a house, or indeed an apartment, would cost millions in the city's eastern suburbs. If there are ocean views it's worth even more. This is why the scungiest of one-bedroom flats in suburbs such as Bondi Beach are rented for a bomb. If you can stand on the toilet and stretch your head through the window to glimpse the blue sea, you're in prime real estate.
Property prices
Our parents and their friends bored us with endless talk of real estate. But having grown up and moved out, it's a fright to realise we're doing the same - musing endlessly about the cost of living in Sydney.
Some of us remember when newspaper property ads were 10 small lines in a narrow column of abbreviations. Now they're picture books, huge great volumes with photos bigger than our heads and equally inflated prose. The prices are mind-blowing and few of us will ever be able to afford a house in the suburb in which we want to live. But we're still here.
The 2000 Sydney Olympics
They were more than a decade ago but Sydneysiders will never stop talking about the greatest Olympic Games ever.
A true Sydney resident knows why there is a patchy blue line painted on roads between North Sydney and the Olympic Stadium. The sight of the Gold Ambassadors, volunteers in yellow jackets assisting travellers at Sydney Airport, swells our hearts because it reminds us of the Sydney 2000 volunteers 11 years ago.
We'll also deny any suggestion that we were cynical, disinterested and disparaging about the event before it forever changed the city and its residents.
The trains are terrible
Even when they come on time we complain about them. They're stifling in summer, we say, and crowded with sweaty passengers.
They don't come often enough and when they do they're late. They cost too much, there aren't enough seats, no one moves in the aisles and the pre-station announcements can't be heard. The airconditioning is too cold and you can't open the windows.
Scorning Sydney's metropolitan rail system would be a sport if it didn't make everyone so cranky on their way to and from work.
Cycling is tough
You know you're a Sydneysider if cycling to work strikes fear in your heart. This city was not built with commuter cycling in mind. The roads, twisty and full of hills, are suited to cars. Even four-wheel-drives find them squeezy.
Riding a bicycle to work means taking the back roads, eyes steeled for parked-car doors opening menacingly in your path. It means riding on main thoroughfares, bearing the honks of drivers furious at your presence.
More bicycle lanes have helped but most cyclists ride with a strength of will disproportionate to the threat of their machine.
Jacarandas
We know we're home after spotting the purple haze of jacaranda trees visible from a plane landing in Sydney in summertime. The carpet of dark lavender dotting the sprawling suburbs is as familiar as the snaking, shimmering harbour.

The beach
Sitting in an office in summer, stifled by knotted ties and suits, has an easy solution.
Sydneysiders know they can leave work in late-afternoon sunlight and be at the beach within an hour. People travel from around the world to visit beaches we jump on a bus to visit. Backpackers living in Kombis at the beachside car park know how good it is until the council, propelled by irate residents, chases them out
Cockroaches don't make you scream
They're part and parcel of a Sydney kitchen and, on the whole, impossible to eradicate entirely. To the amazement of most international visitors, we'll simply stamp the critters with a shoe or chase their glossy antennae-waving bodies with jam jars.
Creepy crawlies
We're even less worried about spiders, having been taught from an early age to identify the funnel web's lair or the redback's bright slash of body colour. Casually catching a huntsman spider or a gecko in the living room and gently releasing it outside impresses tourists no end.
Things that make us proud
Ask a Sydneysider for a tour of the city and they'll take you to the Opera House, the Harbour Bridge and Bondi Beach. Partly because they are striking and partly because we think visitors want to see them.
After that, the tourist will be presented with some more enigmatic sights. The Coke sign in Kings Cross (it's the biggest advertising billboard in the southern hemisphere, we'll say proudly). Harry's Cafe de Wheels in Woolloomooloo. Look, we'll say between munches of a Harry's Tiger, the pie cart has framed black-and-white photographs of Frank Sinatra, Pamela Anderson, Colonel Sanders and Elton John on the outside.
Via weaving drives through suburbia, we'll present Little Italy in Leichhardt and Haberfield, Little Vietnam in Cabramatta, Little Spain in Liverpool Street and Little Portugal in Petersham.
Food
In a week we'll eat laksa, pho, pad see yew, penne arrabiata and a lamb roast.
We'll eat mangoes at Christmas, juice streaming down our chins. We know a good meat pie, an easy skill given the number of establishments in the city and its rural environs proclaiming they have the best.
We're rabid home cooks but remain appreciable samplers of the raft of cuisines at the local restaurants.

:lol:

After living through Katrina, I truly understand what those people feel. They are in our prayers also. Thanks for posting.