Aquapocalypse

Brisbane has been making the news lately. The current bout of flooding has beat out even the 1974 floods. Luckily this time we have the Wivenhoe dam on our side, but things are still pretty crazy here. Luckily, Mary and I are in a safe place on top of a hill. We're a solid 30 or 40 meters out of reach of the river. However, a good 50 or 60 thousand people are not so lucky. We know a few people whose houses have gone under. On the plus side, it's supposed to be pretty nice this week. I went for a walk out towards campus to take some pictures. It's unreal.


The Eleanor Schonell bridge, looking towards St Lucia campus. I ride across this every day to work.


I ride down this path to get to work.


The UQ Lakes bus stop.


Cops on rescue patrol with jetskis. They pulled into the bus loop and looked around, but I guess no one needed rescuing so they didn't launch the jetskis.


Someone's dock floating by, complete with deck chairs. The broken shit in the foreground is the old dock for the ferry that linked St Lucia with Dutton Park before the bridge was put in. It's just been hammered.


A better view of the old ferry dock.


This is Sir William Macgregor Drive, under about 2 or 3 meters of water. This is like the St Lucia equivalent of Marine Drive around UBC.


SWM Drive looking the other way, underneath the Schonell Bridge.


Looking out at the river from under the Schonell Bridge.


Looking from the top of a parkcade on campus across the lakes.


The ducks are loving it. Their swimmable range expanded about a hundred fold.


Somebody's bike locked below a parkcade. The bottom floor of this parkcade has been flooded since Monday.


These guys had tried to drive their truck out of a car park into water that was too deep for their vehicle to handle. They got it out, but the electronics/battery got fried. At this point they weren't trying to start it, just secure it to a tree so that it wouldn't get pushed away by the flood and cause damage.


Chunks of the South Brisbane Cemetery are underwater. I was the only person walking through here at the time and I have to admit, it was a bit spooky. If swamp zombies exist, they are here.




This is just outside the cemetery. I had been talking to a couple who had just agreed to buy a house down this street but hadn't settled, and the 3 of us were just being flood tourists when the two people in this photo walked up. Most of their house was underwater. They had kayaks, but they were trapped at least 2 meters under brown opaque sludge. I felt kinda guilty about just being there taking pictures, but what can you do.


This Lab just didn't give a shit. He was pretty cute, but I was not about to pet it after it had been flopping around in this muck.


This is Fairfield Gardens, a mall nearby our house. You can't normally canoe up to the front door.


The backside of Fairfield Gardens. The intersection that is to the left of the big sign is probably about 4 meters under water.

More to come.