Videos: Deadly flash floods in Australia

[ghost]

I almost ran over a huge rattlesnake while mountain biking once.  It's scary as shit if you don't see it coming. 

[Tale]

Google street view of a Brisbane street, compared with current flooded view. Best indicator of the height of the water is the traffic lights.

http://twitpic.com/3pj0ra

[ghost]

This is absolutely insane.  Do they have any thoughts about when it will go away?

[WayAbvPar]

After 40 days and 40 nights. Duh.

[ghost]

This is an absolutely heart wrenching story about a kid that died to save his brother in the floods.   

[Tale]

This is an absolutely heart wrenching story about a kid that died to save his brother in the floods.   

How weird. I'm a journalist in Australia. The writer of that story comes from Wales (UK). She worked with me for a TV network in Sydney for the last few years. She moved back to England, where she is now. And a US TV network has paid her to do a web write-up of a story from the Nine Network, another Australian TV station. The world makes no sense.

[Tale]

Meanwhile on the other side of the southern hemisphere, Brazil is also having insanely large floods, with over 500 people dead in its worst natural disaster for 50 years.

And in Sri Lanka, 300,000 people are displaced in massive flooding, also linked to the La Nina weather pattern affecting Australia.

[UnSub]

It appears that some of the rivers didn't get as high as expected, so Brisbane wasn't as badly hit as initially expected. That said, the CBD was water logged and underground car parks are 1) full of water and 2) full of junk washed in by the water.

Massive repercussions for Australia as key farming land may have been stripped of top soil and the cost of building materials will sky rocket. Plus it isn't over yet.

[Mosesandstick]

There are also floods in the Phillipines. I think all indications are that these ones are going to be much worse than the Australian ones, Australia has the money and infrastructure to mitigate and prevent damage. Sad times all around.

[Sand]

Australia, Brazil and now the Phillipines.
So uhm should we be merging this thread yet with the Anti-christ one?

Or add the words "Mayan Calendar" somewhere in the title?

[Tale]

Favourite story of the day.

Snakes fall from trees in Qld floods
14 January 2011 | 03:37:43 PM | Source: AAP

Snakes are still posing a threat to emergency and cleanup crews in central Queensland, with the reptiles even trying to escape the rising waters by slithering into flood boats.

And in Dalby a snake catcher has been hired to protect New Zealand SES volunteers. Western Downs Mayor Ray Brown said snakes are still posing a real threat to emergency and cleanup crews.

"We have a contingent of 20 SES volunteers from New Zealand working in Dalby at the moment but we've had to hire a local snake catcher to go around with them and keep the snakes away from them, because the Kiwis don't like them very much," he told AAP.

"There are no snakes in New Zealand so these poor blokes are pretty spooked by it all and the Aussies are taking every opportunity to tell them as many scary snake stories as they can," he said with a laugh.

The mayor said while no one has been bitten yet paramedics are on hand just in case.

"They're not here just in case of snakebites but they're ready to deal with them if necessary," he said.

"I was talking to a medical crew who went out on the Condamine River at Dalby in a flood boat just on dark last night, and they had a number of snakes swimming up to the boat and trying to get in because they're looking for anything to hang onto.

"And there have been lots of stories about snakes getting caught up in trees and as boats go by they're just plopping out of the trees; I mean it's not raining snakes but it's not the most pleasant of places to be.

"Their country's been flooded too and they're just trying to survive, but anything that wriggles mate, you stay well away from, and I have a lot of respect for snakes."

[ghost]

Australia, Brazil and now the Phillipines.
So uhm should we be merging this thread yet with the Anti-christ one?

Or add the words "Mayan Calendar" somewhere in the title?

I was thinking this same damned thing.  Dogs and cats, living together. 

[Teleku]

Also, a bit earlier on, California had a rash of flooding in the south.  Southern California had the wettest December in recorded history this year, and it flooded a shit ton down there.  For the same reasons as Australia, since we are also affected be El Nino and La Nina here.

So basically, you could probably blame all the flooding on that rather than the anti-Christ, but thats not nearly as fun, I will agree.

[ghost]

El Nino and La Nina

Maybe they are together the antichrist. 

[pants]

El Nino and La Nina

Maybe they are together the antichrist. 

El Nino is Spanish for 'the boy', and was named that in reference to baby Jesus, since it was first noticed in south america around Christmas time - I think we're onto something here...