Just keep swimming

[lizbee]

My icon on DW (a street sign reading FLOODWAY almost completely immersed in floodwater) comes from the last big Queensland floods.

Right now, a vast proportion of Queensland, approximately equivalent to Texas, is underwater. This, unfortunately, includes my home town. Family and friends are okay so far, although my mother's town is completely cut off from the rest of the world (so nothing new there. *RIMSHOT*) but today they're predicting more rain, plus controlled release of water from the overflowing damns, plus a king tide.

Aaaaaaaaaaaand, because this is all about me, I'm torn between staying home to keep refreshing the news, or going to work and refreshing the news there. Some joker in IT decided that all the Brisbane news sites should be blocked for obscene content (insert joke about the Murdoch press here), but my supervisor said I could use her computer to check stuff when I needed.

I'm reminded of the Black Saturday bushfires a couple of years ago, where my line manager at Borders spent most of the afternoon listening to fire updates on the radio and trying to call her parents. Speaking of which, I've lost the link (since I was reading the news on my phone before I got up), but a town that was all but wiped out by said fires is now raising money for flood relief. Incidentally, donation options.

So, um, yeah! If anyone needs me, I'll be reloading this and being otherwise quite useless!

Comments

[trouble]

I'm so sorry. ♥

[sqbr]

I was just thinking last night "Do I know anyone in Queensland? OHGODWHENDIDLIZBEELASTUPDATE??" (I tend to jump immediately to the worst conclusion) Anyway, best of luck to you and yours, the whole thing sounds apocalypticly unpleasant.

[lizbee]

For purely selfish reasons, I'm really glad I moved to Melbourne.

[sqbr]

I KNEW THAT *cough*

:)

[holyschist]

I hope your family and friends continue to be okay so far and things at least stop getting more wet soon. This is so huge. :-(

[fyrdrakken]

I was in bed this morning reading all the links and photos and RTs on Twitter on my phone and just kind of boggling. Glad you're in Melbourne, and that your friends and family are okay.

[lilacsigil]

Queenslanders donated flood relief money to Victorians in the Black Saturday fires, so I'm glad we're returning the help! I hope everyone you know is okay and stays safe.

[cheyinka]

Wow, that's a huge area to be underwater! I'm glad your family and friends are okay, at least :/

[tellitslant]

I thought I remembered that you had family in Brisbane. Here's hoping things stabilize as soon as possible.

[fahrbotdrusilla]

I didn't know it was so bad there, I hope your family is okay! *hugs*

[tree_and_leaf]

I hope that your family are and continue to be OK - I can't get my head around the scale of the flooding (which the UK media is being weirdly blase about - mildly surprising, as big bushfires tend to get a fair bit of coverage).