We have been having the most insane weather. I don't know if you remember the 2011 flooding in Queensland, but apparently this weather will exceed those floods. It's been raining for a couple of days now and yesterday afternoon it got really bad. I'll start by saying that we're fine. We are in a good area, in a strong, sturdy building that is only four years old and our power has been unaffected. That being said, this weather is CRAZY. Probably around 1 or 2pm yesterday the rain started intensifying and the wind really picked up. At three or so one of our building managers came on the speakers and said the police had called and ordered all outdoor furniture to be brought in because there were wind gusts up to 150 kilometers/hour (90+ mph). It raged all afternoon and continued all night. This morning it was STILL raging and didn't let up until around 3pm. Brooks and I were so excited that the rain stopped and even more excited to see the sky that for 1/2 a second I thought we should join all of the people across the street who had gone out for some fresh air. Good thing we didn't because not two minutes later the clouds rolled back in, the sky turned gray and we were hit with round two. Although it continues to rage, it doesn't seem to be any worse and it's believed that tomorrow the weather should clear out. At that point we should be okay and the danger will be for those in areas where the flooding has occurred. We live directly across the street from Burleigh Beach and that's been a focus for news teams. Here are some pictures that have been snapped today from those who have been out and about.
This is just to give an idea of some of the flooding taking place.
This is an easy walk from our place and usually
you can see the beach and a bunch of huge rocks.
This is the same place getting pulverized by waves. Check out
the inside of the building. (Click the picture to make it bigger.)
This area might look familiar from pictures, except usually
it's grassy and not covered in foam from the waves. You can
see the park where Brooks plays under the blue tarps.
The next pictures are from the very brief time this afternoon when the rain stopped.
I guarantee ALL of these people got SOAKED because round two came out of nowhere.
This is a preface for the saddest pictures we saw. Take note of the
swings because they might be all that's left of Brooks' park.
The trees have fallen and knocked over the poles with the tarps.
But he's resilient. He wants to take his plastic Black and Decker
tools over when the rain clears to start the rebuilding efforts.
