My City is Drowning

http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/queensland/severe-weather-warning-for-brisbane-flooding-cuts-off-coast-20090520-befd.html

As I write this, my City is flooding. I hardly have words to describe the sights I'm seeing on TV. It is surreal to think it is in my very own back yard. It makes me realise how we all see things like this on TV so often but never really 'get' what it's really like until it strikes close to home.
The last time my city suffered this kind of flooding was in 1974, when I was only a toddler...and today they are saying that the current floods are as bad, if not worse. I can hardly believe that just last year we were in the midst of the worst drought in history. Finally our poor farmers got some crops going, and now they are washed away in a wall of water.

The started as a result of a severe weather system that has drenched our 'once dry' area with so much rain over this summer that the ground is now completely saturated and unable to take much more. But the rain keeps going, and going...and it's still pouring outside. This together with massive amounts of run off water up in the ranges caused one of our regional towns - Toowoomba, to suffer what they are calling and 'inland tsunami'. This town is on a plateau, some 700m above sea level. How shocking that it has been hit so hard.
As a result the devastation is now flowing downstream, flooding all the western townships to the west of the range, and swelling the Brisbane river that flows east right through our capital. That, together with king tides filling up the river from the sea side today...is making this probably the most shockingly devastating day of Brisbane for a long long time.

My heart, thoughts and prayers are going out to all those people who have lost their homes, lost their loved ones, lost their pets and, lost their livelihoods...along with all their possessions. I feel both blessed to be dry and have a roof over my head, yet at the very same time I feel so helpless, as we all do. I look out my window at the pouring rain, and pray for my city to survive because it is such a beautiful place. Mother nature surely does work in mysterious ways.

Please take a look at the following pictures and links....this was what happened overnight.
As I write this entry, the Brisbane river is rising, houses are going under and people are fleeing the city to be home safe, or worse still...pack a few belongings and evacuate. Everyone is scared, everything is soaked and the skies are so grey and ominous. I feel sad.

http://news.ninemsn.com.au/slideshowajax/139318/floods-ravage-queensland.slideshow

http://video.theaustralian.com.au/1733787708/Brisbane-Flash-Flooding